Academia Falls
by jkawsome
Summary: An incident at the USJ sends Midoriya Izuku and his friends spiraling into another world, where quirks don't work and the supernatural runs rampant. Will they thrive in this new environment and find their way home? Or will the dark secrets of Gravity Falls claim new victims?
1. Hero Trapped

Izuku Midoriya was not having the best day.

To be fair, it had started out wonderful. He and the rest of class 1-A were going to the USJ to get some rescue training in, and everyone was excited, especially Izuku. After all, rescues were a big part of being a hero, even if it wasn't necessarily as glamorous as fighting villains. But before they could actually begin their training, they were interrupted by people who were, according to Aizawa, real villains. _Real villains!_

Honestly Izuku wasn't sure whether to be terrified or somewhat excited. He decided on mostly terrified, especially after the black, misty villain announced that they were the league of villains, and that they were there to kill All Might. The next thing Izuku knew, he was surrounded by darkness, and falling, falling…

Then he hit something hard.

Izuku groaned, and got up onto his hands and knees. There was a hardwood floor beneath him. One of the training grounds? It didn't seem like it, it felt too….clean. In fact, a glance around revealed he was in a kitchen. Messy, sure, but not a place where one would need to be rescued from.

_What if that guy's portal dropped us off in some person's kitchen! Oh man, that'd be so embarassing!_

A small moan next to him pulled his attention away from the scenery and towards his companions. Uraraka was pulling herself up next to him. So she was here too! At least he wasn't alone. Looking the other way showed Ashido and Todoroki were there as well. Uraraka noticed Izuku and her face lit up.

"Midoriya! You're here! And you're okay! What happened? Where did that guy drop us?"

Todoroki sat up and scanned over the room with cool eyes. "Wherever it is, it doesn't look like the USJ. It could be that he scattered everyone as far away as he could, but that seems to conflict with their agenda. After all, the villain was obviously trying to keep us from leaving, so why would he send us somewhere else? It doesn't make sense."

"We should try and look around, see where we ended up. Maybe this house has some clues that'll let us know where we are," Izuku suggested.

Ashido grinned. "That sounds like a great idea! Let's do it!" They pulled themselves off the floor when-

"Holy - Did a bunch of teenagers just drop out of the sky and into my house?! Also, why is one of you pink?! What's up with that?"

_Well that answers that question! We really did fall into someone's home!_

Izuku flipped onto his back and looked at the man who spoke. He seemed to be in his 60s to 70s, wrinkles covering his face, wearing a black suit and carrying an eight-ball cane. A red fez covered his hair. He glowered at the four of them. "Well? I want an explanation right now!"

Izuku jumped to his feet. "We're really sorry sir! We were attacked by a bunch of supervillains, and one of them apparently could open portals and he sent us here! Again, we're really sorry-"

"Supervillains? Ha!" The man slapped his knee. "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard! You better have a better explanation than that."

Izuku frowned. A better explanation? Even for civilians, everyone all over the world knew there was always some problem or another with a supervillain. A villain that could create portals might be rare, but it wasn't that surprising. Something turned inside his gut, The whole situation felt off.

Ashido crossed her arms. "Hey, I'll have you know we're all students at UA high school. Superheroes in training have to deal with supervillains all the time!"

"That might be stretching the truth a bit," Uraraka muttered.

"Yeah yeah, whatever. If you could help us get back there, we'd really appreciate it." Ashido finished. Izuku looked back to the man. To be honest, he was kind of expecting a _Oh, you're UA students? Wow, of course I'll help you!_ Or something like that. It was what he would have done. But to his surprise no recognition flashed across the man's face. If anything, he looked even more skeptical.

"UA? Never heard of it, sounds dumb. And what do you mean, dealing with supervillains? Those don't exist. And superheroes in training? What, do you think you guys have superpowers or something? You do have the weird outfits to match."

"Of course we have quirks!" Uraraka shot back. Izuku ignored the awkward feeling in his stomach at the mention of that. "I mean…." She trailed off, frowning. Slowly, her expression became one of absolute horror.

"What is it?" Izuku asked.

"I-I can't feel my quirk," She said softly. Her voice rose into a panicked shout. "I can't feel my quirk at all!" She reached out and gripped Izuku. He braced for the feeling of weightlessness that came with her touch, but to his surprise it never came. "It's gone! It's gone!"

Shaken, Izuku focused in on himself. Sure enough, he couldn't feel One for All at all! It was like he was quirkless all over again. He could hear Ashido's cry and Todoroki's shaky intake of breath. All four of them had seemingly lost their quirks. How was this possible?

The old man's gaze softened slightly. "Look, if you kids need a ride back to wherever you came from I can help you. You guys might want to go to a doctor or something though for whatever this is."

"No," Todoroki said through gritted teeth. "We need to use a computer. There's something I want to check out." Izuku glanced at him. Todoroki's expression was almost as stoic as always. He seemed to be taking this fairly well, or as well as anyone could take it.

The man shrugged. "I don't have a computer, but I've got a bunch of newspapers I haven't gotten around to throwing out yet if that helps." Todoroki nodded.

"Yeah, that's fine." What was he thinking? Maybe they were in some alternate universe or something? Or in the past? It sounded totally fake, but Izuku had a borrowed quirk and this man didn't know about UA. At this point, anything was possible. He, Uraraka, and Ashido followed Todoroki and the man (he needed to find out his name) into another room, where the man pulled out a stack of newspapers. Todoroki nodded his thanks and flipped through them. He paused on one of the papers. "Here."

Uraraka glanced over his shoulder. "What is it? Wait, is that in English?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't it be?" The man asked. Uraraka frowned.

"Well, I know English and all, but not super well. But I can read this as easily as if it was Japanese."

Ashido glanced down. "You're right!" Izuku looked down and sure enough, it was easily readable. Very weird, and adding the list of things that were wrong with this situation. The man seemed confused. Did he not realize they were from Japan? He was speaking Japanese, after all. Or maybe not, maybe they were speaking English and didn't realize it! This was so confusing.

He took a good look at where Todoroki was pointing, and it immediately clicked. "This is - this is in the past! But I know that date, it's about a week after the first quirked person was born, that baby who glowed."

"And it isn't mentioned at all!" Ashido finished. "Weird!" She looked up at the others. "Do you think we're in some alternate world or something?"

The man stiffened. "A different world? You guys are seriously from another world? That portal thing came from another world?"

"Yeah," Izuku said. "Why, do you know anything about that?"

The man coughed awkwardly and looked away. "Well, a bit, sure. Not much, I mean. But yeah, I've seen some other world stuff before. Never been in one though. So! You guys have superheroes and superpowers and all that junk?"

"Yup," Ashido answered. "And it looks like this world doesn't have any of that. We - we can't even feel our quirks." She shivered slightly. "You know anything that could help us get home?"

"Nope, sorry. I mean if you guys need a place to stay while you're here or whatever, I can help you guys find a room at the local inn. There's not much for a while outside this town."

Uraraka twirled her hair around her finger. "Thanks for the offer, but ah, do any of you three have money?"

_Oh no._

* * *

And so that's how the four UA students ended up sleeping in the attic of the old man, Stan Pines, whose house was a tourist trap called the Mystery Shack. He had agreed to house them there as long as they worked in his Shack. Pay to stay and everything, which made sense, although he did mention they would have to make due with two beds and two sleeping bags for now. Izuku laid his somewhat dusty sleeping bag next to Todoroki's, while the girls tested out the beds. The attic wasn't huge, but it did give off a somewhat cozy feeling. Stan had gone to the store and come back with a jumble of second hand clothes so they could change out of their costumes.

As it turned out, Stan was hearing the four of them in English, and they were hearing him in Japanese. Just another weird thing to add to the list.

Uraraka flopped down on her bed. "So. we're stuck here in this small town in this shack until we can find a way home, or until someone from our world finds us. As far as we know, we're the only ones who ended up here. We totally missed the rest of the villain invasion in the USJ, and we've got no idea how it ended. For all we know our friends could be seriously hurt, and we couldn't help them."

"No way, I'm sure Aizawa and Thirteen beat up those dumb villains," Ashido assured her. "But even so, who knows how long we could be stuck here! It could be weeks, or months, or more! We could totally miss the sports festival, and lots of our hero training. We can't even - we can't even use our quirks." Her voice cracked at that last part, and she pulled her knees to her chest. A miserable expression covered her face.

Izuku looked down. Ashido was right. After everything he had gone through to finally become a hero, it could all have gone down the drain due to one villain's quirk. And not just that, but what would happen to One for All now that Izuku couldn't use it? What would happen to All Might? All Might had chosen him to receive his power, and now Izuku was trapped in another world with that power that wasn't working. What if One for All was lost forever?

_No, I can't think like that. We will find a way home!_

"What concerns me is Stan," Todoroki said. It was weird, seeing the stoic boy in red flannel pajamas. It clashed with the image Izuku had of him. He thought Todoroki would protest to them, but he didn't seem to mind. "He's obviously hiding something. I wouldn't be surprised if knows more about this alternate world mess than he lets on."

Izuku couldn't help but agree, after seeing how fast Stan had changed his tune upon hearing they were from another world. He tapped his fingers against his leg. "So we stay here and work at this Mystery Shack, figure out as much as we can about this world without heroes or quirks, and work on how to get back. See if we can earn Stan's trust so he'll tell us what he knows."

"Sounds like a plan," Uraraka yawned. She laid down on her pillow. "For now, let's just get some sleep, and see what happens in the morning."

After the day Izuku had, he couldn't agree more.

The next morning, Stan set them to work at the Shack. They met his other two employees, a handyman in his mid to late twenties named Soos, and a teenage redhead around eighteen named Wendy who manned the cash register. Ashido and Uraraka took out the trash then took a walk through the town, apparently named Gravity Falls, while Izuku and Todoroki restocked items.

"Stan wasn't kidding. There's really nothing here," Ashido said when the girls returned. "Only weird thing was that for a world without quirks, no one seemed that bothered by me being pink. A couple glances here and there, but that was it."

Izuku rubbed his chin. "That _is_ odd. There must be more to this town than meets the eye."

"We should talk to the people who stop by the shack," Uraraka suggested. "They might know if there's anything going on around here." Ashido waved her off.

"Nah. What we need is to make pals with the locals. They'll probably know what's up more than tourists will."

So there they were, busying themselves in the shop, waiting for the afternoon to come when they could get out and explore. Eventually, Stan walked back in the gift shop, having just finished another tour.

"Alright, look alive people," he called out. "I need someone to go hammer these signs in the spooky part of the forest." The four students exchanged glances. This could be their chance!

Izuku stepped up. "I'll go do it. You can count on me." Stan looked down at him in surprise.

"Well, sure, go knock yourself out kid." He tossed the wood signs to Izuku, along with a hammer and some nails, which he barely caught in time. Izuku took that as his cue to go and hastily walked out the door.

Izuku wandered the forest, putting up signs. So far the town and its surroundings had seemed normal, but he had a feeling there was more to it, a feeling that was only intensifying the longer they were here. It wasn't one he could explain, but it was there all the same, and it certainly wasn't being helped by this walk through the woods.

As he rose the nail to a tree and tried to hammer it in, Izuku heard a metallic clang. Curious, he rapted the hammer against the tree. There it was again! A secret compartment maybe? He felt around the tree until he came across what could be a hatch and pried it open. Inside was a rusty machine with a few switches. He flipped them, and one opened a hole in the ground behind him.

Peering in, Izuku found an old, leatherbound book. Picking it up and dusting it off, he discovered that on the cover was an outline of a six fingered hand with the number three inside. He opened the book and inhaled in surprise, before coughing out some dust. Finding a way home might not be as impossible as it had originally felt.

* * *

Todoroki glanced over the back of the chair Izuku was sitting in, Uraraka dangling over the edge of the armrest. Ashido was out, trying to make friends with some of the locals. "So, this author talks about all these magical mysteries of Gravity falls? And mentions something about a dimensional portal for his research?"

"Yeah! Although it seems like he stopped writing about halfway through. Maybe he vanished, or really was able to reach another dimension." Izuku couldn't help but feel excited. This could be the big breakthrough they needed to go home!

"Then we should definitely look into it. Good find Midoriya!" Uraraka smiled and checked her watch. "I wonder when Ashido will be back so we can tell her the news."

As if on cue, Ashido burst through the door. "Hey guys, I'm back! And I made friends with a local! Say hello to Norman."

* * *

"So, we're in agreement that Norman is not a normal man in the slightest?" It was two hours later and the group, minus Ashido, were gathered in the attic going through video footage. Soos had been the one to suggest gathering evidence, even mentioning that he thought the mailman might be a werewolf. Izuku would have to see that one to believe it.

"I think that's obvious, even if Ashido refuses to see it," Todoroki said, motioning towards the camera. "In a world with no quirks, this guy sticks his arm through a glass window like it's nothing, got hit in the head with a frisbee and fell down flat, again with no injuries, and…. Hang on, did his hand just fall off?"

Izuku hastily rewound the tape, and sure enough Norman's hand had fallen off, and he had hastily put it back on. Nothing to strange in their world maybe, but in this one…

"You know," Uraraka said slowly. "I'm beginning to think we made a mistake in leaving Ashido to head into the woods alone with him."

The three of them stared at each other in silence, then at once shot up and ran down the stairs and out the door. Stan seemed to be entertaining a bunch of tourists with a rock that looked like a face(?) and they decided to leave him alone. Izuku looked around frantically, spotting Wendy driving a golf cart. He pointed her out and they raced over. The older teen didn't even ask for an explanation, just smirking and handing over the keys, telling them not to hit any pedestrians. Izuku took the wheel as the three piled in.

Soos walked over to them. "Dudes, this is for whatever creature that Norman guy is." He handed Uraraka a shovel, and she thanked him. He then handed a baseball bat to Todoroki. "And this is for if you see a piñata." Todoroki had no response to that, merely blinking, and they drove off.

As they speed into the forest, Izuku could hear Ashido calling for help. "Hold on!" He called back. Panic started gripping his chest. He just got dumped in a whole different world with only three other people that he knew! He couldn't lose one of them! They followed her voice to find a bunch of-

"-A bunch of gnomes," Todoroki said flatly.

Ashido was kicking them off her. "Guys! Norman turned out to be a bunch of gnomes that want to make me their queen! And they're total jerks!" She punched another gnome away, but more jumped in and shoved her down. "Dammit! I could really use my quirk right about now!"

Uraraka jumped out of the golf cart and brandished her shovel menacingly. "Hey! Let go of our friend you tiny jerks!"

One of the gnomes turned to face her. "You think you can stop us girl? The gnomes are a powerful race! Do not trifle with-" She picked him up with her shovel and pushed him aside.

"Sorry, but Ashido comes before gnome threats!" She wacked the ones surrounding Ashido, who jumped to her feet and kicked the rest away. The scrambled into the golf cart and Izuku stomped his foot on the gas. They zoomed away to the sound of screaming gnomes.

"Whew, thanks guys! Those things were creepy!" Ashido gave a nervous laugh, like she was trying to play off the fact that a bunch of small old men had just tried to kidnap her and force her to marry them. Todoroki's eyes narrowed.

"Don't be so sure we're clear. There's always a chance they have more tricks up their sleeves."

Uraraka chuckled. "Well how much can they do? Did you see those guys? They were tiny!" Of course, just as she said that, large stomping shook the ground beneath them.

Izuku, riddled with apprehension, glanced behind them, and his heart almost stopped. "Uh guys…."

Sure enough running after them at breakneck speed was a giant tower of gnomes, forming a huge gnome monster like some unholy supervillain trying once again to destroy them. Izuku, Uraraka, and Ashido all screamed, and Izuku swerved to avoid a giant hand slamming down where they just were. The monster sent a bunch of gnomes flying at the cart. Uraraka and Todoroki knocked them away with their shovel and bat respectively.

Ashido smirked at the white and red haired boy as she pulled a gnome off the back of the cart. "This isn't exactly a pinata, you know."

Todoroki shrugged and swatted another away. "I don't care."

The cart hit a bump, and Izuku lost control. The four went flying, and landed right in front of the mystery shack. Izuku groaned and pulled himself to his feet.

The gnome at the top looked down at Ashido. "Alright honey, you ready to come back into the forest with us?"

Uraraka glared at him. "Like hell she would-"

"Nah, it's okay." Uraraka whipped around to face Ashido, who was walking forward. "Alright Jeff, you win. I'll marry you."

Izuku gaped at her. "Ashido? What are you doing? You can't marry him!"

Ashido turned around to face them and whispered, "It's okay guys, just trust me. I know what I'm doing." Izuku gulped. It was true that she was a hero in training like the rest of them, but could they just let her agree to marry the gnomes like that?

_Think. This isn't like Ashido, from what I know of her. She must have a plan of some sort._

Jeff climbed down through the rest of his (friends? Family? Izuku wasn't sure). "Well alright then! See, that wasn't so hard now was it?" He popped open a box to reveal a ring with crystals on it, which Ashido let him put on her finger.

"You may now kiss the bride!" She declared. Jeff reeled back in surprise, but quickly recovered.

"Well, don't mind if I do!" He leaned in…. And Ashido pulled out a leaf blower which sucked him in, much to his apparent surprise and dismay. She turned to the others and grinned.

"I found this when I was taking out the trash for Stan this morning. Guess it really came in handy." She turned to Jeff and glared. "Of course I won't marry you, you creep! You can't just expect to kidnap someone and have them be okay with it!" She aimed him up at the rest of the gnomes. "This is for messing with me and my friends."

"On three?" Uraraka asked cheerfully. Ashido nodded and beckoned them closer. The four of them pulled the lever back. "One, two, THREE!"

The shady gnome went flying into the monster, and it collapsed like dominos, tumbling over one another. The parts that made it up scampered away.

Ashido brushed her hands off. "That was awesome! And we defeated those guys even without our quirks. I'd say that makes us pretty good heroes."

Izuku nodded thoughtfully. "You know, if all of Gravity Falls is like this, than even though we're stuck here, we might get some pretty good hero training in. N-not that it makes up for actual training, or that we shouldn't get out of here as fast as possible, of course," He added hastily. "Just that our skills won't dull as much as they could've while we're here."

Todoroki looked like he was going to disagree, but Uraraka and Ashido were smiling at him. "You're right!" Ashido said cheerfully. "And we did an awesome job right now." She held out her fist. "Hero fist bump!"

Uraraka laughed and bumped fists. "Hero fist bump." Izuku smiled, warmth flowering in his chest as he added his fist and words in. After a lifetime being bullied and alone, it was so _nice_ to have friends to do things like this with. They all looked at Todoroki, who looked in thought for another second, but reluctantly fist bumped them, without any words. They all headed into the shack, Izuku feeling light despite their predicament.

Inside, Stan was his counting cash. He snorted at them as they walked in. "Jeez, you guys look like you got hit by a bus or somethin'." Izuku ignored him, determined not to let the old man's sour attitude bring down his mood. However after a moment, Stan added: "You know, you boys overstocked the shop this morning, so you four can each take something, on the house."

Uraraka blinked at the seemingly out of character comment. "Really?"

Todoroki frowned. Izuku could understand, from what they had seen of Stan, he wasn't one to ever give things away for free. "What's the catch?" Stan scowled, but it had no heat.

"The catch is do it before I change my mind, now git." Izuku took the opportunity to look around for anything interesting. He saw Todoroki grab an interesting looking pin and putting it on his jacket, Uraraka holding up a necklace with some crystal on it, and Ashido grabbing a - a grappling hook? What? Stan didn't seem to mind at all, so he turned his attention to what he would get, deciding on a nice pen. After all, he now had a journal to write in.

* * *

"So from what I'm getting from this, the author eventually realized his dimensional portal was too dangerous, and shut it down without ever using it," Izuku told the others, now relaxing in the attic. He was exhausted from the day they'd had, and they weren't any closer to finding a way home. "Although, he did mention he was calling someone to help him hide the evidence."

Uraraka fiddled with her star adorned pajamas, watching Ashido as she aimed her new grappling hook around the room. "That's a good thing, isn't it? If the author didn't go through the portal, that means there's a good chance they're still here. If we can find him, we can ask them if they know a way to get us home." Now that Izuku thought about it, she was right! The author obviously knew at least some about travel between worlds, which was more than their group knew. They could help them. "Who knows? Maybe we've already met them and we don't even know it."

"Maybe they're Stan. Or maybe he has a secret sibling who wrote the journals."

"Todoroki! Don't joke about that!"

"Sounds like a plan." Ashido sat down. "You know, I've been thinking. We're stuck together in another world, living in the same room together for who knows how long. We should probably bond and stuff, that could help whenever we run into problems." She smiled. "So, you guys can just call me Mina." Huh, Izuku wasn't expecting that, but bonding together did make a lot of sense.

"Well then," he rubbed the back of his head. "You guys can call me Izuku!" His eyes flitted to Uraraka, who smiled at him.

"In that case," she said, "Just call me Ochako."

Todoroki's expression didn't change, but that was nothing new. If anything, Izuku was getting used to it. "Call me Shouto, I guess. Can someone get the light?"

"I got it!" Ash- Mina aimed her grappling hook at the lamp and fired. The lamp shattered and blew away, but the light was definitely out. "Got it!"

Izuku laughed. In spite of all the terrifying and confusing things that had happened the past few days, it was comforting to know he wasn't going it alone. _The author of the journal might have said there was no one in Gravity Falls that could be trusted, but when you fall into another world due to a villain attack, then fight off a hundred gnomes with a group of people, you know they've got your back. And soon, we'll all find our way home together._

Sleep came surprisingly easy that night.

* * *

**Hello, and welcome to Academia Falls! This story starts off following the Gravity Falls timeline, but will start to deviate soon enough, once some things are established. Also important to note is that all the GF characters have been aged up to meet the MHA characters. So the twelve/thirteen year old's are now fourteen/fifteen, and the teenagers are now in their last summer before college. I hope you enjoy!**


	2. Lake Legends

Ochako woke up slowly the next morning. Sure, the bedsheets and blankets weren't the most comfortable she had ever been in, (Far from it actually, _yikes_ they were itchy) but they were warm, and she didn't want to leave them. The past few days had been so weird and stressful, they almost felt like one long bad dream.

_Except it's not a dream. That's the problem._

She missed her parents. What were they thinking about right now? They had to be worried sick. They had encouraged her to chase after her own dreams instead of following the family business, and now she was trapped in another world because of it. Did they blame themselves? Hopefully not; it wasn't their fault, it was those dumb villains!

Her heart ached at the thought of them. She missed them so much. And UA, and Iida, and their other classmates. At least she had some people with her, so she wasn't completely alone. Speaking of which, she didn't seem to be the only one awake.

Reluctantly, Ochako sat up to find Todo- Shouto awake, head resting in his hands and looking contemplative. It was still weird to see him acting so casually. After that super powerful display he showed at the training exercise a few days ago (was it only a few days? It felt much longer), she had gotten the feeling he was a person she really didn't want to mess with. And yet here he was, laying around in a sleeping bag in an attic with the rest of them. It was kinda neat, actually! It made her realize he might be a lot more approachable then she'd first thought.

"So…" She began hesitantly.

He looked up. "What is it?" _Crap, I don't have anything to say to him!_

"Well, I mean, how're you holding up?" Ochako chuckled nervously. "I mean, it's been a pretty crazy few days and all. So, how're you doing? I know I'm freaking out it bit myself."

Shouto looked away. "I'm fine. We're heroes, we need to be prepared for any sort of situation." Ochako wasn't sure this counted as a "heroes" situation exactly. After all, she had never heard of people falling into alternate universes before. That sounded more like something out of a comic book than real life.

_But it did happen to us. I can't ignore that. Maybe Shouto's looking at it the right way. I just need to relax, and think of it as just an obstacle to becoming a hero._ She wished she could just be calm like he was.

The two sat in comfortable silence until Mina and Izuku woke up, then the four headed downstairs together. Stan made them all pancakes, grumbling about it the whole time. Although at this point, Ochako was pretty sure they all knew he was more bark than bite. At least when it came to personality, there was always the chance he did know more about their situation than he let on.

Izuku flipped through a magazine, and his face brightened. "Hey guys, check this out!" Mina leaned over.

"Human sized hamster balls? That is super cool! I want one!" Ochako perked up and leaned over, then deflated. Sure it looked awesome, but it was five hundred dollars! Izuku shook his head and pointed to the page next to it.

"No, the monster hunt! It says here you can get a thousand dollars if you win this photo contest. We could really use that money, and if there are gnomes in these woods, there's bound to be plenty more things we can take pictures of."

Ochako smiled at her friend. "That sounds like a great idea! Even if the money won't help us find a way home, we have nothing right now, and who knows when we might need it here." Izuku let out a nervous laugh and gave her an awkward smile. Ochako wished he would be more confident, he was full of awesome ideas.

"Sweet, we should do it!" Mina cheered. "And we can get the hamster ball and still have a ton of money left over."

Shouto frowned at her. "We are not wasting half our prize money for some hamster ball, and that's even if we win the contest. Don't you want to get home?"

Mina pouted. "Geeze Shouto, you're such a buzzkill." Shouto just looked away. Seriously, Ochako wondered about that guy.

"From what I've read in the journal, there's some pretty cool and mysterious stuff in this lake. We could get some good monster pictures. We could head down there after work today, see if we can find anything," Izuku suggested. The other three quickly agreed, but just as they were working out the details, Stan walked in the room.

"Shack's closed today kids, I'm heading out, do whatever you want, just don't burn the place down."

Ochako smiled at her friends. "Or we could go right now."

* * *

"Are you sure this is the right way?" Ochako asked her friend. The green haired boy chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of his head.

"I mean, it should be. From what I can tell from the map and all, that is. Of course, after that wrong turn a few minutes ago, we might possibly be a little bit off course."

"We're totally lost, aren't we," Shouto deadpanned.

"No, we're here!" Mina pointed ahead, where a sign saying 'Fishing Season Opening Day' was clear to see. From what Ochako could tell, it looked like the whole town was out there. From a woman literally telling the fishes to get into her pan, to a very hairy redhead punching a fish into submission while his sons cheered. Maybe he was related to the werewolf mailman?

Izuku cleared his throat. "So, where should we start? I mean, it says here there's this cave behind a waterfall that looks pretty promising, so maybe we could try there?"

Before they could decide, Ochako heard a loud screech. "I seen it, I seen it again!" She looked towards where the sound was coming from. A short old man with a long beard (that had a band-aid on it? What was that about?) was scampering along, knocking over fishing poles and slapping sandwitches out of people's hands. "The Gravity Falls Gobblewonker! Come quick before it scrapdoodles away!" The four kids walked over as the man started doing a jig.

A guy with a hat came over and sprayed him like he was a stray animal. From what he said and how he acted, the man was his father and this happened a lot. But the old man shouted that he had proof this time, and the students followed him over to his destroyed boat. "It was the Gobblewonker that done did it. It had a looong neck like a G-raf! And wrinkly skin like - like this fellow over here!" He pointed at - _wait, Stan is here? This is where he was going?_ "It comped my boat up to smitheroons, and scim-scammed over to Skuttlebutt island!" He pointed at a nearby island.

One of the cops leaned into his walkie-talkie. "Attention all units! We got ourselves a crazy old man." The two cops laughed, along with most of the onlookers, but Ochako made eye contact with her friends. They had their monster! Mina beamed. "Let's go find this thing! Monster hunt! Monster hunt!" Ochako laughed, and she a Izuku quickly joined in the cheering.

A honk made them all look over. Soos was riding over on his own boat, much larger than the others on the lake, with 'SS Cool Dude' written on the side. "You dudes say something about a monster hunt? Need a ride? You can totally use my boat."

Ochako smiled up at him gratefully. "Thanks Soos!" They climbed aboard the 'SS Cool Dude' and headed off.

As they went through the fog and neared the island, Mina cleared her throat to get their attention. "So, seeing as we're going on a monster hunt and all, I figured we'd need to be prepared. And what's the biggest issue on a monster hunt? Camera trouble! So before we left, I grabbed seventeen disposable cameras from the storeroom, so we won't run out."

Soos nodded approvingly. "Nice going! Also everyone be on the lookout. In a monster hunt, the side character usually died first." He paused. "Wait, am I a side character? Do you ever think about these things?"

Izuku patted his arm reassuringly. "All the time Soos, all the time." He looked towards the barrel of fish food Soos had stocked. "Seriously though, I hope this thing likes fish food. Otherwise we don't have any bait."

"I guess we'll find out," Shouto said. They hit the island and climbed out. Ochako held up their lantern light and squinted, trying to get a better look.

"Is this fog a normal part of this island? I mean, is it here all the time, or did we just pick a really inconvenient day?" She wondered aloud. The five began their trek through the woods.

"So, I've been meaning to ask," Soos started. "How did you dudes end up staying with and working for Mr. Pines anyways? When I asked him, he was all, 'they fell out of the sky, don't ask questions', except not exactly like that."

Mina laughed. "Well, he did tell the truth on that one! We're from another universe where we're training to be heroes! But these villains invaded the school and sent us to this world where our quirks - I mean powers don't work, and we ended up in Stan's house."

"Seriously? Dude, that's so cool! You guys are gonna be superheroes! I wonder if I went to your world, would I get cool powers too?"

Izuku looked contemplative. "That's actually a really good question. Maybe you would, who knows how that portal works when it comes to quirks. But I'm just surprised you believed us so fast. I - I mean, it's the truth, so I'm glad! But most people would think we were, you know, lying or crazy or something." Soos simply shrugged.

"Maybe. But I've seen some weird stuff around that no one else seems to notice much. Also I really like superheroes, so it's all cool. If you need help finding a way home, I'll totally lend a hand and stuff. Oh, and you gotta tell me about the superhero school sometime too. That sounds super awesome!" Ochako couldn't help but grin. Of all the people who could be working at Stan's Shack, she was glad it was someone like Soos. He seemed like an amazing guy.

Shouto, who was walking in front of them, put a hand back to silence them. "I hear something." Mina passed out cameras and they all crept forward. In front of them loomed a monster-like shape, and they charged, ready to take some pictures.

However, it wasn't what they were looking for. "Aww man!" Mina sighed. It's just some beavers on a broken boat."

"It's kinda weird how there's a broken boat in the exact shape of a monster though." Izuku pointed out. "I mean, what's up with that?" He frowned. "Still though, even if we took it at a distance that would make it look like a monster, that wouldn't be good enough to win the cash, and all this will have been for nothing."

Ochako punched him lightly in the arm. "Hey, don't worry there's still-" A rumble shook the water near them. "-hope?"

The thing that had to be the Gobblewonker rose with a roar, and swiped at her with its mouth. She barely jumped out of the way in time. "Guys run!" The five of them sprinted away, and the Gobblewonker gave chase, mowing down trees as it chased after them. Mina took out a camera and started taking pictures of it as they ran.

They made it to the other side of the island. "Hurry dudes! Get in the boat!" Soos called. They scrambled in. Mina was the farthest behind, and tripped over a root in her haste to get in the boat, the camera flying out of her hands. She made to go after it.

"Hang on, I can get-" Shouto grabbed her and dragged her back.

"Save it, it's not worth your life." Soos pulled the boat away from the island and they took off, the Gobblewonker close behind. They crashed through the same beavers as before, who had somehow made their way over. The Gobblewonker took a swipe at them and they ducked, but everything above the steering wheel was destroyed, and splinted wood rained down on them.

"Keep on the right side of the lake!" Izuku shouted to Soos over the noise of the engine. "We don't want to hit any of the people fishing!" He flipped through Journal 3. "This says there should be a passage behind that waterfall over there!"

Shouto called over him, "That'd be going down a narrow straight. If you're wrong we're done for, there would be nowhere to go."

"Just trust me!" Soos took his advice and headed towards the falls at top speed, crashing through the falls and hitting the sand behind with such force they all went tumbling out of it. Ochako pulled herself up, sore all over and probably covered in splinters.

Then the Gobblewonker came crashing in. A scream tore out of her throat, and Soos pulled them all closer, but…

"It's stuck!" Mina cried, looking up. Ochako followed her gaze, and sure enough, the monster was trapped in the hole, withering around and roaring. Some rocks fell around it as it struggled to break free. She breathed a sigh of relief. That was super close. "Picture time! I've still got nine that aren't cracked, lost, or filled with beaver photos." She passed one out for each of them, and they all took photos to their heart's content. Ochako's heart rate slowly calmed down, the adrenaline from the chase still running through her.

Shouto lowered his camera. "If the monster is blocking our only exit, then we're trapped in here."

Ochako felt her nerves rise up again, but Izuku had a solution. "Don't worry! The journal says there's a bunch of tunnels back here that lead up to the surface. If it was right about this cave, than it should be right about that too." _Well that's a relief._

Then one of the rocks fell on the monster's head, and sparks sizzled around it. It lay down, as if deactivated. The students and Soos looked at each other curiously, before creeping forward with apprehension. Shouto knocked his fist against the Gobblewonker, and a metallic clang echoed around the cave. He climbed up, the others behind him. At the top was a hatch. But who would randomly pilot a mechanized monster?

The question was answered as Shouto moved forward and opened it up. "You, old man? You made this? Why?"

Sure enough, it was the old guy that had been calling about the monster from the start. He shifted around at the attention. "I - I…. I just wanted attention!"

Ochako frowned at him. "You wanted attention? _That's_ why you built a giant monster and tried to kill us?"

"Or did you steal this thing too?" Mina's voice was harsher than usual.

"No siree, I a'built it myself! Learned to operate a stick shift with my beard too! Ya see, old folks like me don't get any attention from you youngsters! Even my own son won't let me visit him anymore. So I figured I'd catch his fancy with a fifteen ton aquatic robot! Wahahahahaha! Eh… in retrospect, it seems a bit contrived."

Oh wow, this guy was _weird_. Ochako wasn't even sure what to do with him. He wasn't really a real villain, and if he could build something like this, he could probably bust out of any jail around here. Not that those cops would even believe them if they even found a way to take him in.

"Well then… well then maybe you could just, um, get your robot out of the way?" Izuku asked him. He didn't seem to know what to do either.

"I suppose so! Welp, time to get back to work on mah death ray!" He popped back down into the robot, and they all stared after him.

* * *

"So I guess the pictures thing is a dud, huh." Izuku sighed, running his hands through the sand as they waited for the guy, Fiddleford apparently, to move his robot.

Ochako looked at the rest of them. "Not necessarily. I mean, they still look pretty real. I don't see why we can send them anyways. It's probably still way more realistic than anything other people will send in."

Soos nodded. "Fair point dude."

Mina perked up. "That's true! But we might want to get some pictures of other creatures, just in case they realize this one's a fake."

"We can send them under different names," Shouto added in. "That doubles our chance of winning."

Izuku didn't seem to happy with the idea of sending in fake monster pictures, but he reluctantly agreed. "Well then, according to the journal, there should be some glowing creatures called Geodites in these tunnels. We can go looking for them now." They got up and set off down the tunnels. Soon, they noticed some strange lights up ahead. Rounding the bend, before their eyes were a bunch of seriously adorable rock-like creatures with legs. They cautiously moved towards the group. A brave geodite walked right up to Ochako and patted her shoe curiously.

Ochako couldn't help it. She bent down and picked up the small thing. "She's so cute! Can we take her with us?"

"Absolutely!" Mina crowed, placing one on her shoulder. "I'm calling you Azzy and taking you home!" Shouto took photos with a different camera, ignoring the geodite clinging to his leg.

"No way. Stan probably won't allow it, and it isn't as though we can take them back to our world, which we'll hopefully be going to sooner rather than later. Let's just take the photos and get out of here. At least these things will light the way back."

* * *

Soos pulled the wrecked and sadly geoditeless boat back to the beach where they had started this whole adventure, pulling up to Stan, who seemed even more grumpy than usual. He looked up at them in surprise. "Kids? Soos? What are you doing here."

Izuku shrugged sheepishly. "We spent the day looking for a lake monster that turned out to be a robot. We've had a bit of a rough time." He hesitated, then added, "Got room for five more on that boat?"

Stan looked away. "Yeah yeah, whatever. I'm sure you had a great time. Why do you think I'd let you on my boat anyway?"

"You look lonely." Shouto pointed out.

"What? No way! I've had a great time, making friends, taking to my reflection. I even had a run in with the lake police. Guess I gotta wear this ankle bracelet now."

Ochako winced. "You sure you don't want us to come with? We're happy to."

Stan hesitated, then: "You kids ever see me thread a hook with my eyes closed?"

Mina grinned and they stepped into the boat. "Five bucks says you can't do it."

"You're on!" Ochako blinked. It was the first time she felt they had seen Stan genuinely smile.

Izuku grabbed the camera. "Everyone say fishing!"

It was definitely hard being in a new and unfamiliar world. But at least Ochako had people she knew were there for her.

* * *

**Soos. That is all.**

**But seriously, for those who were wondering, the reason they didn't just take a photo of Mina is because 1) They just came from a world of quirks two days ago, she doesn't seem like photo material to them, and 2) because so far everyone in town has been treating her like she's normal, it doesn't really cross their minds that she might not be in this world, at least not yet. I hope that clears this up!**

**Hope you enjoyed! Feel free to leave a review!**


	3. Etched in Wax

Mina would be the first to admit she wasn't the most patient person in the world. Worlds, whatever. But they still had to wait two whole days to see if they won the photo contest! They should be getting a prize for withstanding the suspense, honestly. Then the real trick of somehow getting the others to agree to get the hamster ball would begin, but Mina was certain she was up to the task.

In the meantime, however, they had to find other ways to entertain themselves. Like watching Ducktective, for example. Mina leaned up against the couch's armrest as she stared at the screen.

"_I'm afraid your services won't be required here sir. My men have examined the evidence, and this is obviously an ac-ci-dent." _

"_Accident, constable? Or is it…. MURDER?"_

"Well yeah, obviously, otherwise it wouldn't be a mystery show," Ochako commented dryly.

"Sure, but the fun part isn't realizing a crime was committed, it's who and how," Izuku said. "I mean, to be fair, this is pretty good for a kids show. I think even Shouto likes it." He nodded towards said hero in training, who didn't respond, eyes fixed to the screen.

"Hey dudes! You'll never guess what I found!" Soos poked his head around the door. After that big adventure they had shared the day before, Mina decided she liked Soos. He was super nice, and willing to go along with just about anything. Definitely more fun to be around than cynical grumpy Stan. The four got up and followed him out of the room, Izuku and Shouto somewhat reluctant to leave the show behind.

"So I was cleaning up, and I found this crazy secret room, hidden behind the wallpaper!" He leaned in. "It's super creepy." Soos opened the door to reveal a ton of wax statues. Shouto automatically backed up.

"I don't like this at all. These were here the whole time and we didn't even know?" He said quietly.

Mina grinned back at him as she walked further in. "Not a fan of strange wax figures huddled together in a room?" She poked one out of curiosity. The thing seemed pretty well built. "I've never seen this guy before. Who's he supposed to be?"

Soos frowned in thought. "Hmmm… I think that's Larry King. He does interviews. Maybe you dudes don't have him in your world. But I get what you mean man." He nodded back at Shouto. "It feels like these things are watching me."

Ochako inspected a wax figure of Sherlock Holmes. "These are actually really well made."

"Except for that one, it's like the quality dipped." Izuku nodded towards one figure. Than the figure moved and spoke! Izuku yelped and jumped back.

"Don't worry! It's just me! Stan!" Mina was not ashamed to say that she screamed just as loudly as the others and ran out of the room. She did feel guilty about knocking over Shouto on the way out though. Oops.

* * *

"Ah the wax museum. My most popular attraction! Y'know, until I forgot all about it. Anyway, I've got all the greats here. Wax Genghis Khan, Sherlock Holmes, some kind of, I dunno, goblin man." He squinted at Larry King.

Shouto shuddered. "Seriously. Are none of you going to talk about how strange this whole thing is? This is a weird town, they could be alive or something." Mina was pretty sure that was just Shouto's weird fear of strangely realistic looking wax figures, but whatever.

"And now for my favorite, wax Abraham Lincoln!" Stan gestured towards a melted pile of wax, situated under the one conveniently open window in the entire room. "Wait, what? Seriously, the blinds were open? Dammit!"

Mina leaned forward to take a look at the wax. Sure, she had only taken the most basic arts and crafts when she was younger, but maybe she could do _something_ with it. She caught Ochako's eye, who grinned and turned to the older man. "Don't worry Stan! I was big on arts and crafts when I was a kid. I'm sure we can whip you up something amazing."

Stan just frowned and walked out of the room, calling "Yeah whatever" as he went. Mina and Ochako stared at his back for a moment, then turned to each other.

"You know," Mina started cheerfully. "That almost sounded like a challenge." Ochako smiled.

"We're gonna make the best wax statue ever!"

* * *

Izuku wandered over to the pair, Shouto and Soos behind him. He handed them each a pit cola. "So, how's the statue going?"

"Awesome!" Mina said. She lathered the pants with black paint. "And even if Stan doesn't believe in us, he did inspire our wonderful work of art." She and Ochako stepped back to admire their masterpiece. "Hmmm, needs more glitter."

"On it," Soos said. He left the room and returned a few minutes later with a bucket full of glitter. He then dumped said bucket on the figure.

Mina smiled. "Perfect."

Stan chose just the right moment to walk back into the room. "I found my pants, but now I can't find my- ahhh!" He yelped and tumbled backwards, ending up sprawled out on the floor.

"Are you alright?" They leaned over him nervously.

"Alright? I'm better than alright!" Stan struggled to his feet. "I thought you kids were kidding when you said you'd make me a statue, but you weren't! You guys have tons of gumption. I never should have doubted you." He threw his hands up. "The wax museum is back in business!"

* * *

As expected, the town came in droves. Izuku was there to guide everyone to their seats. Wendy and Shouto maned the ticket booth, which Mina was honestly surprised he agreed to.

He had just shrugged her question off though. "We have to stay on his good side. Also he bribed me."

Mina stood on stage with Ochako, ready to show off her masterpiece. Stan cleared his throat and made his way to the mike.

"You all know me folks, town darling Mr. Mystery. Please ladies, control yourselves! As you know, I always bring this town mysteries and befuddlements the likes of which the world has never known. But enough about me. Behold. Me!" He unveiled the statue.

Unfortunately, due to everyone only being there for free pizza they seriously should have known Stan wasn't going to give out, things just went downhill.

* * *

Stan didn't seem to bothered by it though. After all, he still got tons of money from the event. "Hot tamales! Look at all this cash! And I owe it all to one person. Mina frowned. Just one? She and Ochako had done it together. Stan patted wax Stan's arm. "This guy right here."

_Figures. I don't know what I expected._

Stan noticed them. "Oh and you two also. Now wash up, it's back to work for you tomorrow." she sighed. It wasn't so bad though. Even if it was mostly Ochako, Mina couldn't help but feel like she had just accomplished something really cool, something she could look at and think _I made this, and it's amazing_. It was almost as nice as being a hero. Almost.

Mina was waiting outside the bathroom for her turn to brush her teeth when she heard Stan's screams. Panicked, she raced downstairs with the others to find a very headless wax statue.

"Wax Stan! He's been m-m-murdered!" Stan was shaking and sweating, staring wide eyed and terrified at the decapitated wax man. Not that Mina blamed him one bit. It would be totally unnerving to find someone had chopped off the head of a figure looking just like her.

The question of course was who and how?

The lights of the cop car shone outside the window. It was the first time Mina, or any of them for that matter, had gotten a good look at the law enforcement in Gravity Falls. Mina could almost have believed there was no law enforcement, with everything they've seen, but as it turned out, what they did have was so utterly poor at their job that it didn't really matter.

"I get up to use the john right," Stan told them. "And when I get back, Blamo! He's headless!"

Mina got on the ground and studied her sullied artwork. It was a clean cut, but it was still painful. All that hard work and some asshole decided to go and ruin it just like that! Izuku leaned over and patted her shoulder. "Do you know who did this?" He asked the cops.

The tall one looked over at the short one. "What's your opinion, sheriff Blubs?" The short cop sipped his coffee.

"Look, I'd love to help you out and all, but let's face the facts. This case is unsolvable."

"What?" Izuku said. "Y-you can't just say that! You haven't even looked around yet. There has to be evidence or something! We can, we can help if you need us to."

Shouto was not so polite. "You call yourselves police? This is despicable." Probably not the best thing to say. The cops go on the defensive, mocking Izuku and Shouto for thinking they could solve it, like total jerks, then skipping out to see someone try and fit a whole cantaloupe in his mouth. They were adults, right?

Oh yeah, this was Gravity Falls.

Izuku frowned at their retreating figures. "Well, since they're obviously not going to help us, we'll have to figure this out on our own." He smiled at Mina and Ochako. "Come on guys, let's figure out who messed up your artwork."

"This is taking away valuable time from finding a way home," Shouto muttered. Mina reached over and patted him on the back.

"Don't worry so much! And this is important too, you know. Someone or something hurt wax Stan. For all we know, they could be the key to getting home. Besides," she added slyly. "Isn't doing all this detective work going to be good hero training?"

"I really don't think so." But in spite of his doubt, Shouto agreed to help.

* * *

The next morning, the four set up the crime scene. Ochako used toilet paper as yellow tape, and Mina took pictures of their statue. Shouto had set up a board of all their suspects, and Izuku was looking around the floor for anything the vandalizer might have left behind.

It didn't take him long. "Guys, come check this out!" He pulled an actual axe up from behind the couch. Which was super awesome, by the way. Y'know, if it hadn't been used on their artwork.

Ochako took the axe from Izuku and held it up to the light to inspect it. "Hang on, didn't one of the wax figures have an axe with them? Maybe someone used that to chop of wax Stan's head."

Izuku nodded in agreement. "That's a definite possibility. But we should also look into that lumberjack. He had an axe, and was furious enough to punch a tree when he didn't get that free pizza."

The four headed out into the shop. "Hey Soos!" Mina called out. "Do you know where we can find that big hairy lumberjack from earlier?"

"We need to talk to him to see if he's the one that cut off wax Stan's head," Ochako added.

"Oh Manly Dan? Yeah, he hangs out at this crazy intense biker joint." Soos smiled at the students. "Dude, this is so cool. You guys are like, the Mystery Crew."

Shouto crossed his arms. "Don't call us that." They walked outside, where the real Stan was hiefting a coffin out of his car.

"Hey, can you kids give me a hand with this? I'm doin' a memorial for wax Stan. Something small, but classy." He wiped the sweat off his brow. "Damn this thing is heavy."

"Sorry Stan," Izuku said. "We've got a big break in the case. We're going into town to investigate it right now." Ochako lifted up the axe to show it off to him.

Stan glanced at the axe. "Sounds like something a responsible guardian wouldn't want you doing. Good thing I'm not your guardian. Avenge me kids! Avenge meeeeeee!" Sometimes, Mina really liked Stan.

* * *

Izuku and Shouto had worried about the fake IDs, but Mina had waved them off. If there was anything to be learned in this town, it was that anything goes. For example: the biker joint didn't allow minors that worked in real mines, but they didn't seem to mind minors that were obviously underage. The four got in just fine. The bar itself of course was just as Soos described it. Mina was pretty sure one of the guys in there was knocked out drunk, and most of the others seemed to be fighting.

They split up, Shouto and Ochako sitting at the bar trying to blend in, where Mina and Izuku went to talk to Manly Dan. "So, Manly Dan," Mina started. "Do you mind telling us where you were last night?"

"I was punchin' the clock," he growled.

"So…. you were at work?" Izuku asked.

"No, I was punching that clock!" He pointed to a broken clock outside, with severe dents in it. It was stuck at ten, when the crime took place.

Izuku wasn't done with the questions. "So, you've never seen this before?" He held up the axe.

"That thing? Bah! That's a left handed axe. I only use my right hand. The MANLY hand!" He ripped off the arm of the machine he was fighting, bashing it up while a skinny guy came over and chanted "Get 'im, get 'im!" Thoroughly intimidated, the two grabbed Ochako and Shouto and left.

"Well, it does narrow down the suspects a lot," Shouto said when they told him and Ochako what they learned. "Now we just need to find out who was at the opening and if they're left handed, and we can get this whole thing over with."

Ochako pulled out a list of everyone they had previously thought of. "Let's solve this case!"

* * *

"So the answer is no one on this list." Mina frowned as she double checked everyone they had gone over. They had used different measures for each, such as having the suspects sign a signature or catch a baseball. It seemed everyone at the party was right handed.

"Maybe it was Stan," Ochako suggested, although she didn't look happy about the idea. "Maybe he did it for the drama."

Shouto shook his head. "He doesn't seem the type to do something if he doesn't get any money from it. Besides, he eats with his right hand." Ochako didn't look like she knew whether to be relieved or not. Izuku was muttering to himself, and Mina felt antsy. How could they hope to be pro heroes if they couldn't solve a simple case like this? Shouto let out an agitated breath. "There must have been something we missed. Let's go over the evidence again." Despite his earlier hesitation, Shouto was obviously as into it as the rest of them were.

"Kids!" Stan called out. "It's time for wax Stan's funeral!" Mina exchanged a nod with the others and they all got up. They could finish solving it later.

"Kids, Soos, lifeless wax figures, thank you all for coming. Some may say it's wrong for a man to love a wax replica of himself."

Soos blew his nose and jumped up. "They're wrong!"

"Easy Soos." Stan looked down at wax Stan. "Wax Stan, I hope you're picking pockets in wax heaven." He teared up. "I-I'm sorry, I've got glitter in my eye." He ran out of the room, with Soos close behind him.

Mina got up and walked over to the statue she had been so proud of making. The others joined her. "So, now the question is, how _do_ we find the real criminal? They may not be a villain, but we can't just let this slide."

Izuku bounced the axe lightly in his hands, deep in thought. "Ochako, didn't you say that this axe was from one of the wax figures in here?"

Ochako nodded. "Yeah, that wax women in the dress had it."

Izuku turned to them. "And we know anything can happen in Gravity Falls. So what if the one who cut off wax Stan's head wasn't human? What if they're-"

"Standing right behind you?" The four spun around to see the wax figures in the room getting up before their eyes. The woman grabbed the axe from Izuku's hand before wax Sherlock Holmes spoke. "Congratulations, my four ametur sleuths. You've unburied the truth. Now we're going to bury you." The wax figures closed in around them. "Well done Izuku. You've uncovered our little secret." He pulled out wax Stan's head, the head Mina and Ochako had spent so long working on. " Everyone clap sarcastically. That's it, nice and condescending."

"Told you these wax figures were no good," Shouto said.

Mina might have been frightened, if she wasn't really pissed. "You jerks! What gave you the right to mess up our work like that? Why would you do this?"

"Why? Why? I'll tell you why!" The figure slammed on the coffin next to her, and she jumped. "Because we're cursed! Cursed to come to life whenever the moon is waxing. After Stan Pines first bought us at a haunted garage sale, we were attractions during the day, but ruled the night! Then the bastard closed up shop and left us to melt. We've been waiting to get our revenge for years. We just got the wrong one."

Ochako backed away, horrified. "So you were trying to murder Stan for real? Forget vandals! You guys are straight up villains!" Izuku and Shouto nodded, and Mina couldn't help but agree. Sure Stan could be a jerk, but he had proven more than once he really was a good man. She couldn't let them get away with this!

"Well now that you know," wax Sherlock Holmes' eyes rolled up in his head, showing only whites. The other wax figures did the same. "You must _die_." The students backed against the table with food and candles Stan had set up, throwing whatever they could at them. Nothing seemed to work. Mina fought to push away the helpless feeling rising in her. _If only I could use my quirk! I could make quick work of these things!_ Izuku threw the coffee in one's face, and it melted.

"That it!" Mina said. "We melt them!" They all grabbed candles and charged at their attackers. Mina sliced through wax figure after wax figure. In the corner of her eye, she saw Ochako decapitating Larry King and Shouto sending Genghis Khan into the fire pit.

"Mina, watch out!" Izuku called. She turned to see wax Holmes taking a sword off the wall. And swinging it towards her, knocking her candle out of her hands.

"Catch!" Shouto tossed a hot poker at her. Mina caught it just in time to block wax Holmes' next swing. He pushed her backwards and out of the room and up the stairs. She looked around to see she was cornered.

Wax Holmes raised his sword. "Once you people are out of the way, we'll rule the night once again." _Ohgodohgod_ she needed a way out and - _there_!

"Don't count on it!" Mina dove under the figure and dashed to the window. She pushed it open and climbed outside. The wax figure followed her, up and onto the SHACK sign. He swung down and she swung back with her poker, carefully stepping backwards. Wax Holmes swung again and missed, knocking the "S" clean off the house.

"You really think you can outwit me girl? I'm Sherlock Bleeding Holmes! Have you seen my magnifying glass? It's enormous!" An idea struck Mina, and she climbed to the other side of the roof, nearly losing her balance on some loose tiles. _Crapcrapcrap_…. She caught herself just in time, and turned to see wax Holmes towering above her, sword raised. "Any last words?"

Mina smirked. "Yeah. Got any sunscreen?"

"Got any-what? Oh, come on!" He turned to see the sun rising over the treetops, and immediately started to melt. "Outsmarted by a pink child with horns? What a travesty this is! I'll get you for this!" But before any "getting" could be done, he melted off the roof and bubbled away.

Mina slumped down and let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding, as the adrenaline faded away. That was scary. Scarier than she'd imagined. She'd almost been killed! Stan had almost been killed! How could some wax figures be so scary? Was that was what a hero was always going to be like? Sure, the creepy gnomes and robot lake monster had been scary at the time, but she hadn't felt like she did now, realizing just how close to death she had come.

And yet, she'd survived. She'd won! Mina had protected her friends and new home. That feeling seemed to make up for the fear. It felt amazing. If being a hero always felt like that, then she could definitely look past the fear.

And out of nowhere, or maybe not, she felt _something else_. Like a presence in the back of her mind, alien and inhuman, but not scary or uncomfortable. It felt like….it felt like it was thanking her.

_You're welcome._ She thought. The thing seemed pleased.

* * *

Mina walked inside and back to the room where the wax figures had attacked, to find everything a mess and covered in wax. Izuku and Shouto were mopping the floors, and Ochako was happily putting the rest of the statues in the fireplace, finishing off with wax Shakespeare's head. She noticed Mina and ran over to give her a big hug. "Mina! You're okay!"

"Yup," Mina assured her. "And wax Holmes is no more." She paused, wondering if she should mention the _thing_. "There's something else that happened-" Stan walked in at that moment.

"Hot damn! What happened to my parlor!"

Izuku rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry Stan. Your wax figures turned out to be villains and tried to kill you, so we fought them to the death."

"I decapitated Larry King!" Ochako added helpfully.

Stan took in that information. "Ah. Thanks kids. Just try to clean this all up yeah?" He walked out. Mina supposed he'd seen weirder things.

* * *

Once they had cleaned up the mess and were getting ready for bed, Mina told the others what she had felt on the roof. "It was strange. Like something else was there in my mind, but it didn't feel bad or unfriendly. Then it left. It's gone now but - wait, there it is again!" Sure enough, the _presence_ was back. Again, not bad, just there.

"Wha-what?" Mina turned to see Shouto staring into space, looking very weirded out. She turned to face Izuku and Ochako, seeing similar expressions. So they all felt it. It almost seemed….amused. Then it was gone.

"W-well," Izuku said, voice shaking. "That was strange. Any idea what that was?"

Mina shook her head. "Not a clue. Maybe we can ask Stan tomorrow. He might know. Or check the journal?" Izuku brought it out and skimmed through it, but found nothing. They agreed to look into it more in the morning.

It seemed the weirdness of Gravity Falls was only getting started.

* * *

**Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Just a few more before things start going off show's timeline. The tough part of Gravity Falls is since it's so episodic, breaking from the timeline can be hard, but hopefully what does happen will be enjoyable. Hope you enjoyed, and please review!**


	4. The Hand that Rocks Izuku

It was day six of being stuck in Gravity Falls. Day six of being trapped in another world, unable to go home. Six days of not knowing what happened at the USJ, if everyone else was okay, what was going on in their world, or anything else at all. Shouto was getting tired of counting the days.

Today they would hopefully get the prize money. The other three were waiting anxiously by the door. Shouto almost didn't see the point. Sure, they could use some money while they were here, seeing as Stan wasn't paying them and mostly likely wouldn't pay for anything for them, but it wouldn't help them get home. Not that he was going to let Mina waste it on a hamster ball (seriously, what was with that?). It just - it was just frustrating that they couldn't do anything. That _he_ couldn't do anything. His quirk was _gone_.

He could have made quick work of those wax statues. Or the lake monster, or the gnomes. Instead, he had barely been of use in any of those situations. All of the others had contributed more to help than he had. He had just stood in the parlor room while Mina had risked her life to defeat wax Holmes, been helpless on the boat while Izuku had figured out where to go to avoid the lake monster. Even on their second day in this town, Ochako had taken out most of the gnomes when trying to get Mina away from the creatures.

Sure, he could also fight hand to hand, but that wasn't the point. He had been trained for about as long as he could remember to use his powerful quirk above all else. He was made to have his quirk. That was the whole point of his existence. Without it, he was _useless_.

_I was created by my old man to be a hero with a powerful quirk, one that could surpass even All Might. Without that, who am I_? He had no idea, and it scared him.

Speaking of his old man, what was he thinking about, what with Shouto being missing right now? Shouto was sure he wanted him back as soon as possible. His father wouldn't want to lose his "masterpiece" after all. Maybe Shouto would stay here longer, out of spite. But no, he needed to get back, to keep up with his hero training, and so that Fuyumi wouldn't be left alone. He couldn't beat his father at his own game if he just stayed here, after all.

"Shouto, come down!" Izuku called up. "We did it! We won the money!" Shouto dragged himself out of his sitting position on the attic floor and went to go see.

* * *

They had in fact won the thousand dollars. After a bit of debate over what to do with it, they decided to split the money evenly, so that everyone had some in case of an emergency.

"Man, 250 isn't enough to get the hamster ball," Mina pouted. Shouto glared at her, and she looked away, throwing her arms up in the air. "Alright, alright! Geez, no need to be so hostile."

Soos walked in the room and grinned at all of them. "Wow, you dudes really did it! That's pretty awesome! You all have, like, a ton of money now."

Ochako winced. "Sorry Soos! You were on the monster hunt with us, we should split it with you as well." Soos held up his hands.

"Nah, dudes. You guys earned it. Besides, I have, like, a paying job and stuff." He sat down in an empty chair next to them. "You know, I was thinking about all that other world stuff you guys mentioned before, and I keep seeing this commercial for some magic guy. I'll point it out next time it comes on. We could check it out and stuff."

Shouto back nodded at him. "That sounds like a good idea. We should explore every angle." He had his doubts that it would amount to anything, but it couldn't hurt.

Could it?

"_The tiger was badly injured in the explosion. But we repaired him…. With a fist!_

_Tigerfist will return shortly after these messages._"

"Hey look!" Soos spoke up. "It's that commercial I was telling you about."

"_Are you completely miserable?" A soft voice with a southern accent started to speak. A sobbing man on screen nodded yes. "Then you need to meet GIDEON. He's a psychic. So don't waste your time with other so called 'men of mystery'." The screen showed Stan coming out of the outhouse, with the word FRAUD stamped across it. "Learn about tomorrow tonight at Gideon's tent of telepathy._"

Shouto shrugged. "He's almost certainly just a fraud like Stan. Probably a competitor. Also, when did he take that video of Stan? That can't be legal." Unless laws were different in this world, which, of course, they very well might be. Or laws were just different in Gravity Falls, which was also a definite possibility.

"I dunno," Izuku said. "I mean, you're probably right, and that video thing is weird, but like you said, it can't hurt. Besides, It looks interesting."

Ochako nodded in agreement. "Definitely! I'm curious. I wonder what this Gideon guy is like?"

"Well don't get too curious." They all turned to see Stan standing there, arms crossed, glaring at the TV. "Ever since that monster Gideon rolled into town I've had nothing but trouble. No one under my roof is going under his roof." He hung up his coat and stormed out.

Izuku turned to the rest of them. "You know, tents don't have roofs." Mina grinned.

"Looks like we've found ourselves a loophole!"

* * *

It was surprisingly crowded that night, people he had seen from all over town filling in, including those useless cops from yesterday. Then again, Shouto mused, the Mystery Shack was always surprisingly crowded. People in this town certainly liked their scams. The five took aisle seats near the middle and let their eyes wander around the tent.

"This is like a weird version of the Mystery Shack," Mina commented. She pointed at a repair man near the edge of the tent. "They even have their own Soos!" Soos seemed to be put off by that, squinting his eyes at the appropriately named 'Doos'.

"Hey, it's starting," Izuku shushed them. Shouto leaned back and crossed his arms.

"Let's see what this 'monster' looks like," he muttered under his breath. The curtain drew to reveal….a thirteen year old boy. That was Stan's competitor. A thirteen year old boy. One who apparently acted like he was still eight.

The night didn't get any less weird.

"Looks like Stan isn't the biggest fraud in this town," Shouto commented as they left. "No wonder he's jealous, this kid has him beat." And of course no one would realize it. This was Gravity Falls after all.

"Oh come on!" Mina elbowed him in the side. "Lighten up, he's just a kid. Besides, his dance number was cute!"

"As interesting as it was, I don't think he's going to help us get back to our world," Ochako said. "So we might as well stick to the con-man we already have instead of this new one." Izuku just shrugged.

"He seemed okay to me. Nicer than Stan, at least." Shouto thought of mentioning that many people were nicer than Stan, but decided not to. They decided to get back to the Shack before Stan realized where they went.

* * *

"I'm just saying, we'd totally have enough money for whatever else we needed afterwards! And who knows, it could save our lives someday! You don't know it won't!" They were sitting in the living room Mina taking up the whole couch and Shouto on a chair, Ochako and Izuku looking awkwardly between them.

Shouto felt irritation well up in him. "For the last time Mina, we're not getting the hamster ball." He couldn't believe she was still on about this. They were trapped in another world, and all she could think about was getting some dumb item? It was like she didn't even want to go home.

The doorbell rang, and Izuku shot up. "I'll get it!" The others looked after him, argument temporarily forgotten. Shouto heard him speaking with someone, but it was too muffled to tell who exactly it was.

"Who's at the door?" Stan called out from in the kitchen.

"No one!" Izuku called back. "I'm just going to be gone for a bit." Shouto frowned and Mina sat up straight.

"Who do you think that was?" She asked the two of them.

Ochako shrugged. "Dunno, I couldn't hear their voice clear enough." She glanced back towards the door, worry seeping into her expression. "Do you think he'll be alright? Who knows who that could have been."

Mina patted her on the back. "Izuku can take care of himself I think. I mean, it's not like he can go - go around breaking bones at the moment. He'll be fine. Probably."

Shouto rolled his eyes and leaned backwards, ignoring the crack in Mina's voice when she mentioned Izuku's quirk - or more accurately his lack thereof.. "Wow. Encouraging."

"Hey, don't give me that sass!"

It wasn't until a while later that Izuku finally confessed what was going on. "It's Gideon," He told them the next day, fiddling nervously with the pen in his hand. "Apparently I caught his eye the other day at the show and now he wants to hang out."

"Really?" Ochako asked. "Huh, I wonder why?"

"No idea." Izuku shrugged his shoulders. "He seems like a nice enough kid though. And I get the feeling that he gets pretty lonely a lot. I….know that feeling well. A-and like you said Mina, he's just a little kid. Hanging out with him can't hurt, right?"

Ochako shifted uncomfortably. "I mean, true. But still, something about him rubs me the wrong way. Sorry, I can't really explain it, it just does."

"Just be careful, okay?" Shouto said. Ochako seemed to have good instincts. She might be right about Gideon.

"A-Alright, I can do that," Izuku agreed. He shifted nervously in his chair. The more time Shouto spent around Izuku the more nervous habits he noticed the other boy had, besides just muttering. He seemed to be a perpetual ball of nerves. "But really guys, I think it will be okay."

Ochako sighed. "I hope you're right, Deku."

* * *

"...Izuku?" Mina was looking over her shoulder at the door with apprehension in her face and voice. "Are you alright? You….don't look so good. Everything okay?"

Shouto turned to see what she was worried about. Izuku looked exhausted, dark bags starting to form under dull eyes. His shoulders were slumped as he walked into the room, as though he was carrying sandbags on them. He made is way over to the fridge and grabbed a Pit-cola, slumping down into the chair next to Shouto as he opened it.

Ochako jumped up from her seat and ran around the table to her friend. "Deku! What's wrong, what happened? You've been acting weird the past couple days, and we're seriously starting to worry!"

Izuku sighed, staring into his drink without really seeing it. "It's….Gideon. I agreed to hang out with him because I could tell he was lonely, and I know how that feels like. Not to mention that he just seemed like a nice kid. But after that first day, things got weird." He set the drink on the table. "He keeps asking me to hang out with him again and again, even when I don't feel like it. But I just can't say no, because so many people are there when he asks! I don't want to embarrass him like that in front of everyone. But he's getting really uncomfortable to be around."

"So pick a time when you two aren't around anyone else and tell him you'd rather not hang out," Shouto said. Really, it seemed simple enough. Although once he thought about it, what did Izuku mean by 'weird' and 'uncomfortable'? How weird was weird? Was it something they needed to worry about? An uneasy feeling grew in his stomach.

Ochako seemed to have the same idea. "Izuku, if he's bothering you, you should stop hanging out with him! I know it's hard, and you feel bad for him, but you shouldn't sacrifice your own comfort for someone who's really clingy."

"You're better than that," Mina added. Izuku looked at them in surprise.

"But isn't that what heroes do? Put aside their own comfort for the sake of others?" Shouto looked away awkwardly. The words weren't directed at him, of course, but he couldn't totally shove away the guilt they gave him. He'd become a hero to get back at his father, but was that really a good enough reason? What that a _heroic_ reason?

_It doesn't matter, I've made up my mind. And he wasn't even talking to me anyway, this has nothing to do with my personal issues._

Ochako was shaking her head at Izuku. "Maybe, but not in this case. Gideon doesn't seem to be someone who needs help, at least not in that way. He doesn't need you to save him. You have your own life to live, Deku. Don't throw it away for others." A bit over the top, considering the low stakes scenario, but still. That feeling came back to Shouto again.

_Dammit, this isn't about me! Why am I feeling like this?_

But, maybe he could do something nice for Izuku. Something useful. Maybe do a little bit of good, even without his quirk. He cleared his throat, and the other three spun around, looking at him with open mouths. Was it really that weird that he wanted to talk? He wasn't nearly as outgoing as they were, but still.

"I can speak with him for you, if you'd like," He offered to Izuku. "That way you can get a breather, and he isn't embarrassed in front of anyone. It's a win-win."

"I-" Izuku opened his mouth, then closed it. He seemed to deliberate on what to say for a few minutes, before smiling brightly at Shouto. "That would be really nice. I'd feel a lot better that way. Thanks Shouto! He wanted to meet me at this fancy restaurant in town…." Shouto nodded and looked away. Really, he just wanted to feel useful, like he was doing something, anything. He tried to push down the guilt of that thought, to no avail.

Whatever. He'd confront it after he'd confronted Gideon.

* * *

The restaurant Izuku had mentioned was pretty plain looking, but compared to the rest of Gravity Falls it was downright fancy. Which of course wasn't saying much at all. Called 'The Club', it was literally shaped like a club from a deck of cards. The inside was red curtains lit by floor lamps, a zig-zag carpet, and small two person tables, with comfy leather seats. Actually now that Shouto thought about it, it really wasn't that bad.

Anyways, Gideon. He was sitting in the very back of the room, on the nicest looking chair in the room. Of course he would be, kids liked those kinds of things, didn't they?

Shouto glanced over at Mina, who'd decided to tag along with him, "for moral support." He was pretty sure it was her way of making sure he wasn't going to go and screw things up too badly with Gideon, which kind of hurt. Did the others seriously not trust him even a little bit?

(What had he done to earn their trust?) Why did he even _care_? The others were just obstacles in his way to becoming the best hero. He should have no reason to have any connection to them. So _why_ was he feeling this way? It didn't make sense!

He was broken out of his thoughts when Mina nudged him lightly on the shoulder. "Hey, earth to Shouto. You alright, you ready for this?"

Shouto looked at the pink girl's eyes. She looked earnest. Of course she did, she was one of those people that always looked earnest, and acted the part most of the time as well.

"Yeah. Let's get this over with." They walked over to the kid, whose face was buried in a rather large menu.

"Ahem. Gideon?" Said boy set his menu down in a sort of dramatic fashion. He was wearing the same thing as he had been the day they went to his 'Tent of Telepathy', the blue suit and little American flag pin. His hair was still styled in that ridiculous toupee.

"Oh hello! Mina and Shouto, was it? What can I do for you?" Shouto tried not to cringe at Gideon's easy use of his first name, internally reminding himself that they were in America, and things were different.

"Oh, hello Gideon!" Mina smiled at him. "Yeah, we went to your show a few days ago with Izuku. He, ah, can't come tonight, so we were sent to tell you-"

"He doesn't want to see you," Shouto broke in. He could feel Mina's eyes on him and tried to ignore that. Getting straight to the point was probably the best idea, Gideon seemed like the kind of guy who would keep coming back if they beat around the bush. Best to stick the message in his head so he couldn't get around it.

"It's just that…." Mina rubbed the back of her head and looked away. "Well, you've been sort of clingy, and it's been making him really uncomfortable. I understand that you want to hang out with your new friend, and he does like hanging out with you…."

"You've been pushing him too much, and he feels he can't say no to you in front of everyone, even though he wants to." Shouto finished.

Mina held up her hands as Gideon's eyes narrowed. "Look, he still likes being friends with you! But you need to give him some space. Everyone needs space at some point! I'm sure things will be fine if you just leave him be for a while."

"So…." Gideon seemed to be trying to process all of what they said, and not succeeding very well. "What you're saying is….you've gone and come between us?" One of his eyes seemed twitch.

"That isn't…." Shouto sighed. "Look. He wants you to lay off him. If you really like him, you'll give him the space he needs. Then you two can talk about it. That sound fine?"

"We're all cool, right?" Mina smiled at the white haired boy. "Like we said, don't worry! Izuku still wants to be your friend, he just needs some space."

Gideon just stared at them with his beady eyes, long enough for Shouto to star shifting uncomfortably. He was about to try and say something else when Gideon finally responded. "Of course! We're all cool, these things happen, yes they do. Now, off you two go, bye-bye."

"Right, see you later!" Mina gave a small wave and the two speed out of the restaurant, both relieved to get away from the strange kid. Shouto quickly closed the door behind them.

Mina turned to him. "So that went pretty well! I mean, Gideon's obviously not very happy, considering he was so eager to sho us away, but at least he'll leave Izuku alone for a while." She looked down. "I mean, telling him Izuku doesn't want to see him ever again because he's acting like a creep probably wouldn't have gone down nearly as well. Least Izuku can tell him how he feels in a better environment now." Shouto nodded along, but still felt uneasy. They reached the parking lot, where Izuku was pacing around anxiously.

He noticed them and ran "W-well? How did it go? Is everything okay now?"

"Yup, everything's a-okay!" Mina punched his shoulder lightly. Izuku's shoulders sagged and he let out a long sigh of relief, leaning up against on of the cars.

"Great, I was so worried, but I'm glad everything's okay." He smiled at them. "Seriously, thanks guys."

"Well, not perfect," Shouto amended. "Best we could do was get him to agree to leave you alone for a while, but when he talks to you again, hopefully you'll be in a place where you're more comfortable saying no."

"That…." He hesitated. "That's actually the best, I think." At their questioning faces, Izuku elaborated. "I was feeling really really guilty, making you guys go out and ask Gideon for me. Now I can still talk to him myself."

"Glad to be of service." Mina slung an arm around Izuku's shoulders. Shouto was just watching it happen at that point, so he almost jumped when he felt her other arm swing around him. He tried to focus on their surroundings so as not to bat her away. Thankfully, she let go after a few moments. "Alright, let's go home!"

The three walked back in companionable silence.

* * *

"Do you have a...three?" Ochako shuffled her cards.

"Sorry dude, go fish." She groaned good naturedly and drew another card.

The four students plus Soos were lazing around on the lawn outside the shack. Ochako, Izuku, Soos, and Mina were all playing go fish, a small bag of mini chocolate bars Soos had found earlier that day as the prize for whoever won.

Shouto was laying next to them, eyes closed, spread out on the grass and letting the summer sun beam down on his arms, legs, and face, like a warm shower of sunshine. He'd always liked the warmth of summer, but his enjoyment of the season was generally diminished by the fact that no school meant more time he had to spend at home with his father. While he did wonder about the implications of it being summer in Gravity Falls, and spring when they had last been in Japan, it was still nice to be able to really enjoy the season for once.

Inside the shack, the phone rang, loud enough that they could all hear it. Was Stan deaf enough that he had to make his phone ring that loud, or did it come that way? Who would make phones that loud? So many unanswerable questions.

"So….should we get that?" Soos wondered aloud.

Shouto sighed and pushed himself up to his feat. "I'll get it, since I'm not playing." So much for enjoying the moment. It was nice while it lasted. He trudged over to the shack and walked inside, eyeing the phone for a moment before answering it.

"Hello, Mr. Pines isn't here, can you call back later?"

"Um, actually, I'm calling for someone named Miss Mina." The voice on the other end of the phone was definitely an adult males, but it was also very high pitched and scratchy. And familiar. Shouto frowned, trying to place where he'd heard the guy before.

Oh, that was right! "Toby Determined, wasn't it? You were interviewing Stan - Mr. Pines - at the wax museum opening. Something about being the eighth wonder of the world?"

"That's me!" Toby affirmed. "I run the Gravity Falls Gossiper, so I have all the new scoops around town. I heard something Miss Mina mentioned she was looking for, so I was calling to see if she was still interested. Can - Can I talk to her?"

Shouto hesitated, turning the phone around in his hand. On the one hand, Mina would be pissed at him if he lied and hung up and she found out about it (why did he even care? He _shouldn't_-) On the other hand, this sounded sort of sketchy.

Eh, he was sure it was nothing. This was Gravity Falls, after all. Everything was a bit sketchy around the place. And even if he didn't need friends, which he didn't, it would be best to stay on everyone's good side for the duration of their stay in this town.

With that in mind, he told Toby "I'll get her, hang on," and walked back outside, to where the game was continuing.

"Mina," he called out. She turned around, fistfuls of cards in her hands. "Someone's on the phone asking for you. Said you were going around looking for something, and they found it.

Mina's face brightened. "Oh yeah, thanks! I'm so glad someone found it, this is gonna be awesome!" She set her cards down. "Sorry guys, I'm out. I was so far behind I wouldn't have won anyways, so it's all good really."

"You never know," Izuku commented, but he swept her cards back into the pile anyways. "Hope you get what you were looking for!"

"Thanks!" Mina followed Shouto back into the shack, and she picked up the phone off the counter. "Hi, yeah this is Mina….Really? You have it!? That's so awesome, thanks!...Where?...uh huh, got it, hang on." She grabbed a pen from behind the counter and started writing on her hand. "Got it! Thanks so much!" She hung up the phone and turned to Shouto with a bright grin.

"Good news!" She chirped.

Shouto raised an eyebrow. "You found a way for us to get home?"

"What? No." She waved him off. "If I had, I would have gotten everyone really quickly. No, I finally found it! A human-sized hamster ball for two-hundred and fifty dollars!"

"You - you really-" Shouto gaped at her, the words he wanted to say simply not coming to him. "You're serious? You've been going around asking where you could buy that hamster ball?"

"Yup!" She pumped a fist in the air. "You should know by now, if I want something bad, I'm gonna try and get it. Relax Shouto. It's my money anyways, remember? I can do whatever I want with it."

"That….is true." He conceded. "If really dumb. I'm coming along with you to get it though. Just in case it turns out to be something fishy."

* * *

"Okay, I'll admit it." Mina looked up at the spooky, empty, and very dark looking warehouse, situated on the edge of a very large cliff. "You were right, this is very fishy. Not a place where one would go to get hamster balls. You happy now?"

Not really. That did mean that someone had Toby tell Mina to go to this location for some unknown and probably sinister purpose. That in and of itself was a major problem. "Maybe we should just go back," he ventured.

"And not figure out who's possibly out to get us? Are you kidding?" Mina stuffed the bag of money she had brought back into her pocket and started walking towards the building. "We need to go! What if they try and trick us again?"

As much as he hated to admit it, Mina was right. Shouto followed her up the hill, to the old metal door to the building. After a moment's hesitation, possibly stealing her nerves, Mina flung open the door.

"Hello! Are you there! Whoever you are, come on out!" Her voice echoed around the warehouse as she walked further in. Shouto followed her inside.

A _slam!_ Made them jump and spin around, the door had shut by itself behind them. Shouto stepped over to it and tried the handle. It was locked.

"Well," Mina smiled nervously. "That's not very good."

The lights in the warehouse turned on one by one, revealing boxes stacked to the brim with different blue shirts, dolls, and other miscellaneous items. At the end of the room was a lone swivel chair. The person in the chair spun around-

"Oh," Shouto sighed. "It's you."

"Gideon, what do you think your doing?" Mina stepped forward. "I know you're upset about Izuku, but what do you really think you'll accomplish by doing this?"

"An excellent question." Gideon smiled and stroked the stuffed doll of him he was holding, which was just making the situation even weirder. "Funny enough, I've got a question for you two as well. How long have you been in this town? A week? Two?" He leaned forward, a smirk upon his face. "Listen up kiddos. This town has secrets you couldn't even _begin_ to comprehend!"

"Actually we've fought a few of them already," Mina said, naturally leaving out the part about how they themselves were most likely part of what Gideon considered "secrets". "But if this is really about Izuku, we told you-"

"You liars!" He snarled, standing up in his chair, pointing his finger at them. Shouto took an involuntary step back. He didn't get it; Gideon was just some preteen or young teenager in a world without quirks, so why was Shouto's heart beginning to race?

"You turned him against me!" Gideon continued. He jumped out of his chair and stormed towards them. "He was my best friend and you _took_ him!" He grabbed onto the blue gemstone on his tie, which began to glow an ominous blue.

"Hey, that's not what - whoa!" Mina cut off mid sentence, rising off the ground and into the air, the faint blue glow now surrounding her. Shouto tried to grab her, but found himself lifting off of the ground as well.

Then he was flying backwards, as if thrown by someone heavy. The two of them crashed into some of the boxes, which opened, spilling out lots of little Gideon dolls. Gideon leaned over them, a twisted smile on his face.

"Reading minds isn't all I can do," he gloated.

Shouto looked at Mina, seeing the panic he was feeling reflected in her eyes. This shouldn't be possible; quirks didn't work here! How did he lift them up like it was nothing? Something wasn't adding up.

_Wait a minute_, Shouto frowned. _That stone he has. That must be what gives him this ability._ If that was the case, then all they needed to do was get it away from him. He looked back to Mina.

"The stone," He muttered.

She frowned. "What?"

"What are you two talking about? Don't ignore me!" He raised one of his hands. All around them, the merchandise inside the boxes floated upwards, then drifting over towards them.

"The stone is what's letting him do this," Shout whispered. "We need to get it away." Mina nodded, focusing on said object.

Gideon brought his arm down, and the objects started flying at them. Shouto dodged to the right, and Mina rolled to the left. Not a moment too soon, as the small objects hit the ground where they were and shattered.

Mina ran over to Shouto. "Keep him occupied, I'll grab the stone," she whispered. Shouto nodded, and they separated again just in time to avoid Gideon's flying projectiles.

So how to distract him. Hmmm…. "Izuku hates you, you know," He yelled towards the younger kid. Gideon's face contorted in fury. An entire shelf flew at him, and he rolled away just as it slammed down where he had been. "You creep him out. He only hung out with you because he felt pity for you. That's why he sent us to tell you he wanted to stop seeing you, he doesn't want to be around you any more than he has to."

"You LIAR!" On the plus side, all of the different objects Gideon was controlling were dropped. On the downside, Shouto felt himself lifted off of his feet again, hovering even higher up in the air than before. Then he nodded towards one of the last few boxes, and lamb shears tore out of it, floating up to Shouto. "Now I'll make sure you never lie again!" The shears snapped open and closed as they got closer and closer.

Then they dropped. So did Shouto, although years of training helped him roll with it, using the momentum to carry him forward and ending up on his feet. He looked up to find Mina holding the stone triumphantly over her head, Gideon grabbing at it in fury.

"My amulet!" He jumped for it again. "Give that back you-"

"GIDEON!" The doors to the warehouse swung open, and Izuku and Ochako charged inside, looking flustered. Mina and Gideon spun around to see the newcomers, the former careful the keep the amulet out of the latter's reach.

Izuku walked towards Gideon and stood to face him. Them being so close to each other only exaggerated the height and age difference of the two, Izuku's shadow covering the younger boy.

"Look, Gideon. I-I should have said it myself, I know that, but you were making me feel really uncomfortable these past few days. I know you were having fun, and it was nice being your friend, but I have to cut it off." He paused. "Also, I just saw you about to really hurt my friends, which is seriously not cool! If you want real friends, you need to clean up your act."

He stepped back, having apparently said his piece, and took a deep breath. Mina smiled and punched his shoulder lightly. "There you go, you said it!"

"No….no!" Gideon lunged at Mina in a desperate bid to get the amulet, knocking her and Izuku over. Mina yelped as she tumbled backwards.

"Shouto, catch!" Shouto blinked as the amulet flew over Gideon's head and towards him. He reached up and plucked it out of the air. Gideon snarled and charged at him, face filled with determination. Shouto quickly sidestepped the kid, watching him barrel past. Just as he caught his breath, Gideon snatched his arm and pulled, the kid's momentum sending them both crashing through the window and over the edge of the cliff.

Shouto could hear the other student's screams, but they quickly faded away as the warehouse shrank smaller and smaller about him, as he got closer and closer to the ground. The wind stung his eyes and filled his mouth, making it hard to breathe. The ground was coming up _he was about to hit_-

Then he slowed to a stop, close enough to the ground that see could see bugs crawling on the grass. He found himself slowly pulled into an upright position, and put down softly on the grass. A thump next to him told him the same had happened to Gideon.

He looked upwards. There, in the light of the moon, was Ochako, holding the amulet, and covered in the blue glow. Izuku and Mina were right behind her, floating in the sky. Ochako lowered the three of them slowly to the ground.

Izuku hit the ground and stormed over to Gideon, who was lying face down on the grass. "Listen Gideon," he snapped. "It's over. We're not friends. I don't like you, and I want you to leave me and my friends alone." He shared a brief nod with Ochako, who raised up the amulet again. The white haired boy was lifted into the air, and moved over to the other side of the clearing they had landed in.

Gideon struggled to his feet. "This isn't over," He warned. "This isn't the last you'll see of little old me." He walked backwards into the forest.

The four looked at each other in silence. After a moment, Mina let out a strangled little laugh. "So. That happened."

"It did. Certainly a bunch of fun. What just happened." Shouto agreed, stumbling over his words. His mind was still reeling from what had just happened. Mina blinked at him in surprise, then let out a small smile. He wasn't really sure what he said that was smile worthy, but he gave a small nod back.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Izuku asked him, voice laced with concern. "I mean, you did just fall from a really far height. Do you need to sit down or anything? I-I'm so so sorry this happened, I didn't mean to let it get this far."

"It's fine," Shouto reassured him. "I'm fine." In all honesty, he was pretty sure the only reason he wasn't completely freaking out at the moment was because he was still in shock and running on adrenaline. Once that wore off, he'd definitely be feeling something about what had just happened.

"It wasn't your fault," He said, because it really wasn't. "No one blames you for that."

"Not one bit," Ochako agreed. She held up the amulet. "So, what do we do with this thing? It'd be a shame to just destroy it, we could really use some power in this world."

"Fair point," Izuku pulled the journal out of his jacket. "Let's see if it's in here."

"How do you carry that thing around all the time?" Mina wondered, sounding more than a little impressed. Izuku chucked awkwardly.

"I'm pretty used to carrying around a lot of books." He flipped through the pages. "Let's see here. Amulet….amulet….aha! Found it!" He sat down on the ground, eyes skimming over the page. "Says here that that thing is cursed to corrupt the soul of whoever possesses it long enough."

"Okay, so that's a no for keeping it then." Ochako threw the stone onto the grass.

"No, wait! Here it says that we can undo the amulet's curse by following these bunch of steps." He held of the book for the rest of them to see. "If we do this, than we can keep it, and not have to worry about getting corrupted!"

"In that case," Mina added, "I think Ochako should hold onto it. She did save our lives with it, after all. And it matches up best with her quirk."

"Really?" Ochako asked. She picked up the amulet again, a large smile spreading across her face. "That….would be nice. Very nice. Thank you guys." She leaned forward and pulled Mina into a hug. "Thank you."

"Of course!" But Shouto could see the longing in Mina's eyes. It was the same that was most likely in his. Not for the amulet itself, but for the ability to use something at least somewhat like their quirk again. To have that part of themselves back, at least a little bit.

Izuku cleared his throat. Shouto noticed he didn't have that look of longing Shouto and Mina had. Hmm. "Right. So to clear this curse, first we're going to need a lot of enchanted mushrooms…."

* * *

The four were stretched out on the couch, relaxing their sore muscles, when Stan finally came walking in. He raised an eyebrow at them.

"Geez, what happened to you guys?" He hung up his coat on the rack.

"Gideon," they all sighed, in varying degrees of exasution.

"Gideon," Stan commiserated, grabbing a pit-cola and sitting on the large skull next to the sofa. "I was just passing him in the street. The little mutant "swore vengeance" on the whole house. That includes you four apparently." He snickered. "Guess he's gonna try and, what, nibble my ankles or something."

"Yeah….yeah!" Mina smirked. "What's he gonna do now without his amulet? He can't actually hurt us anymore. What's he gonna do, guess what number we're thinking of?"

"Mmmh Mmmh." Ochako floated her soda to her mouth, slurping contently. The amulet was currently attached to the necklace she had bought their second day in Gravity Falls, next to the charm that had originally come with it. Shouto unconsciously felt for the pin he had taken, currently on the jean jacket he'd been wearing.

A small smile played across Izuku's lips. The whole rest of the evening he'd been apologizing to Shouto, to the point where Shouto just nodded and waved him off. Not that he didn't appreciate it, but it was getting a bit annoying.

Stan laughed. "Yeah, bet he's planning our destruction right now. Hah!"

Shouto said nothing. He still felt out of it, shell shocked from his near brush with death. Not that that was all. This had been just another time where he'd been useless, the one who had to be saved, by Ochako this time around. All he'd done was walk into a trap and gotten pulled out of the window like an idiot. He really was useless without his quirk, wasn't he?

He clenched his fists against his sides. No more. He wasn't going to be useless anymore. He'd do whatever it took to get them back home to their own world. He'd do it no matter what! And if none of the other students cared enough to help him, he'd find another way.

* * *

It had been ten days since the four students of U.A High School had come to Gravity Falls.

And somewhere, something else was watching, ready to make their move just a bit earlier than before.

* * *

**Thanks for your awesome reviews everyone! Sorry for the wait, I wasn't super fond of this chapter, and it took awhile to get to how it is now, which is at least better than my first draft. **

**I know in Journal 3, it says that the amulet Gideon wore was cursed, but I added in the part about being able to remove the curse, because I always planned for Ochako to get the amulet. So that's just an added part of this au.**

**Anyways, I hope you enjoy, and please review!**


	5. Inconvenient Matters

**I'm so sorry for the late chapter! Things have been pretty hectic lately, and I just haven't had the time to write it out or ideas to make it as good as I wanted it to be. I hope you enjoy, and please review!**

* * *

It was the day after the incident at the warehouse that the four UA students found themselves sprawled across the Mystery Shack's gift shop. Mina was leaning next to the globe Stan had on his desk, spinning it around. Ochako was deep in the merchandise, seemingly testing her limits on how much she could lift with her amulet. Shouto was sitting next to the window staring out at nothing. Soos was getting candy out of the vending machine. The part time worker, Wendy, was reading a magazine. And Izuku was flipping through the pages of the journal, clicking his pen as he looked through the section on ghosts.

Stan stomped through the door from outside, scowling. "Soos, Wendy," he called out. Soos scampered over, while Wendy didn't even look up.

"What's up Mr. Pines?" Soos asked.

"I'm heading out." Stan smiled at his employee. "You two are gonna watch the bathrooms while I'm gone, okay?"

Soos saluted. "Yes sir!"

Wendy saluted as well. "Absolutely not."

Stan laughed, then narrowed his eyes at the four students. "You stay out of trouble," he warned, before closing the door again and walking away.

"Rude," Mina pouted. "It's like he doesn't trust us or something."

"Well, we did drop into his house from a portal in the sky just a few days ago," Ochako pointed out. "I mean, it kinda feels like it's been forever, but it hasn't really. And we fought a robotic lake monster, and messed up his parlor room with cursed wax figures, and fought his arch nemesis with magic powers."

"That's pretty fair." Izuku chuckled. He noticed Wendy out of the corner of his eye, moving towards the other end of the shop.

"Hey guys," she called out, reaching a small curtain over a part of the wall. "What's this?" She pulled it back. "A secret ladder to the roof?" Wendy gave them all a grin, which was returned by at least three of the other people in the room.

Soos walked over, eyeing the ladder nervously. "Uuuh, I don't think Mr. Pines would like that. Maybe this isn't such a good idea."

"He's not here at the moment, is he though?" Wendy snarked. Soos didn't seem convinced.

Mina walked over. "Can we actually go up there?" The other three got up and joined her, Izuku putting his pen in his coat pocket and tucking the journal under his arm.

"Sure we can!" Wendy was already opening the latch to the upstairs and climbing up. She pumped one of her fists in the air with a grin. "Roof time, Roof time!"

"Roof time, Roof time!" Izuku laughed and joined in the chant, climbing up after Mina and being extra careful not to let the journal slip out from under his arm, with Ochako and Shouto right behind him.

Wendy opened the latch, showing that they were on the lower portion of the roof, over the porch. She climbed up over the top of the taller roof, and the four scrambled after her. Izuku slid down on the other side to see the setup Wendy had going on: A flat section of the roof, complete with a couple of pool chairs and a cooler, an umbrella, and a bucket of pine cones.

Wendy gestured around her. "Check it out. You like?"

"Absolutely!" Ochako affirmed. Mina flopped down in the pool chair and stretched out.

"I could get used to this," she sighed happily.

"Did you put all this stuff up here?" Shouto asked. Izuku startled and turned around to face the other boy. Shouto was looking at the little rooftop hideaway with interest. It was nice to see, considering what had happened yesterday. Izuku had honestly been worried for his friend, but Shouto seemed to be recovering from his near death experience. Still, something felt off….

Wendy shrugged in response to Shouto's question, looking smug. "I may or may not come up here during work, all the time, every day. Lots of time to set this up." She picked up a pine cone and chucked it at a totem pole. The pine cone landed right in the middle of the bulls-eye she had taped up there. "Ha, yes!"

Izuku shared a grin with his friends, and they each picked out a pine cone, taking turns throwing them. He felt pretty satisfied, watching his pine cone hit its mark right smack in the middle of his target.

"You guys are pretty good at this," Wendy noted.

Mina smirked. "Training. Lots of training."

A few seconds later, a blue van pulled up in front of the shack. Wendy brightened up. "Oh hey, it's my friends!"

Someone stuck their arm out one of the windows. "Wendy!" Wendy waved back enthusiastically.

She turned back to them with an awkward smile. "You guys aren't gonna tell Stan about this, right?"

"No way! We won't rat you out." Mina made a 'zipped lips' motion with her fingers. Wendy repeated the action with a laugh, and jumped onto the tree right next to the roof, sliding onto the next tree, and bending that one all the way towards the ground, where she hopped off and jumped into her friends van. They all drove off laughing.

Izuku watched this all happen, mouth slightly agape. "Did - did she really just do that? That - That whole sequence of events, I mean."

"Yeah," Shouto affirmed. "That was really _really_ cool!"

"That was awesome!" Ochako cheered. "Anyways, we should probably head back down before Stan notices everyone but Soos is gone." After a murmured agreement, they all headed back.

* * *

The owl clock chimed on the wall, and Wendy grinned, shoving her name-tag in her pocket. "Hey, quitting time!" Although to be fair, days working at the Mystery Shack had gotten a lot more fun with the younger kids around, even if she still had no idea where they had come from. She waved to them. "Welp, gang's waiting for me, so I'm off. See you guys."

"Hang on," Mina stepped forward. "Do you think we can join you guys? Your friends sound like a lot of fun."

"Yeah!" Ochako perked up from behind the counter. "I wanna meet the people you hang out with! I mean, the only guys we know in this town are everyone who works here, sort of that Fiddleford guy, and Gideon. Ugh." She shuddered. Wendy wondered what the weird kid had done, but decided not to pry.

"Hmm, sure, I guess you guys can come along. Why not?" They were neat kids. Pretty weird, but neat. Also, who was Fiddleford? Meh, didn't matter. "I'll go get my stuff."

Wendy went outside to see her goofy friends acting as they usually did. Lee and Nate were holding down Thompson, and Robbie was aiming a candy at his belly. Wendy snatched one up and flicked it lightly, watching as it hit the jackpot, right in Thompson's belly button.

Her friends all looked over, their faces lit up. It made Wendy's heart warm, to know just how much she mattered to the guys. Nate started chanting her name.

"Hey guys." Wendy walked over, the kids in tow. "These are my pals from work, Izuku, Shouto, Mina, and Ochako." Mina, Izuku, and Ochako waved. Shouto stayed quiet, but at this point Wendy kind of expected that. Guy kinda looked like he had a dark and tortured past.

"Nice to meet you guys!" Mina greeted.

"Wow." Nate leaned over to get a closer look at Mina. "You're pink! That's so awesome!"

"I like the horns. They make you look pretty cool," Tambry commented. Mina blushed.

"Thanks! You guys all look awesome as well!" She smiled at Wendy's friends.

"Thanks for letting us tag along," Izuku said nervously. From what Wendy could tell, neither of the boys now working at the shack had much in the way of social interaction. Hanging out with other teenagers would probably be good for them.

"No problem!" Lee flashed Izuku a thumbs up. "Any friend of Wendy's is a friend of ours."

"So, are you like, babysitting, or…" Robbie started.

Wendy huffed. "Come on Robbie." She turned to the kids. "Anyways, this is Nate and Lee. Nate's the one with the baseball cap, and Lee is the one with the long hair." Nate elbowed Lee, both of them grinning. "That's Tambry." The purple haired girl gave a wave, not looking up from her phone. "And Thompson, who once ate a run over waffle for fifty cents."

"Don't tell them that," Thompson mumbled. The others snickered. Wendy motioned to her left.

"And that's Robbie." Who had brought his guitar along with him for some reason, even though he knew there was no one to play for. But hey, they all had their weird quirks, so everyone let it slide. "You can probably figure him out." Robbie strummed his black guitar for emphasis.

"Yeah," he flicked his hair out of his eyes. "I'm the guy who spray painted the water tower."

Ochako's eyes brightened. "Oh, you mean the giant muffin. That's really neat!"

"What? No!" Robbie sputtered. "It's an explosion." All of their eyes drifted above the trees to the water tower, where Robbie's red spray paint was on full display.

Lee snickered. "Ha, kinda does look like a muffin," He pointed at it with a smirk. Nate quickly joined in.

"Definitely a muffin," Shouto fought back his laughter. Robbie glared at them, and Ochako winced.

Wendy decided it was time to intervene. "Let's hurry it up guys." She gestured to the van, whose door had been open the whole time. A lot of bugs had probably gotten in. "I've got big plans for tonight." She clapped her hands a couple times for emphasis. All of them clambered into the van, the four kids from the shack squeezing into the back.

Thompson, the driver, turned around to look at them. "Alright guys, before we go, my mom said you aren't allowed to punch the roof anymore." There was a moment of silence.

"Thompson! Thompson! Thompson!" They all punched the roof as hard as they could. Wendy could even hear some of the kids in the back joining in on the fun.

Wendy smiled to herself; she knew letting those kids join in was a good decision.

* * *

The rock music was blaring extremely loud, to the point where Ochako was trying not to wince. She looked over at her friends. Mina was jamming to the music, Shouto was staring out the window, _again_, and Izuku was tapping his pen to his cheek nervously.

Ochako leaned over to him. "Everything alright?"

Izuku jumped slightly, and looked over to her with wide eyes. "Yeah, I'm fine! It's just, I've never done something like this before. Hung out with a group of friends, I mean. Besides you and Mina and Shouto, obviously, and we've been fighting for our lives most of the time." He looked down at his hands. "I guess I'm just nervous, even if I don't have a reason to be."

Ochako frowned slightly. The way he said it...Izuku was a really nice guy. She's always thought he would've had friends before UA. But the way he said that made her rethink that train of thought. Was that why he was so nervous all the time?

She elbowed him lightly. "Hey, if it makes you feel any better, I haven't done something like this either." He looked at her in surprise. She gave a half shrug. "My parents don't have a lot of money so, y'know, people would sometimes make fun of me for that. I didn't have a lot of friends."

"That's awful!" Izuku exclaimed. "I'm so sorry, I didn't know."

"And I didn't tell anyone," Ochako admitted. "I didn't want people to think of me that way again." It wasn't her parents fault for wanting to give her a good education. But going to a rich school as a poor kid was hell. She couldn't believe she was telling someone about it even now. Ochako guessed that was just the aura Izuku excluded, it made you feel like you could trust him. "But I'm just saying, I know how you feel."

Izuku gave her a warm smile. "Thanks. That means a lot to me." It meant a lot to her too, that someone understood what she was feeling. Ochako hadn't expected many people from the hero course would understand how she felt, but she was happy to know she was wrong.

The van stopped and everyone tumbled out. Ochako looked at their destination: an old, run down store, called 'Dusk 2 Dawn', clearly abandoned and blocked by a fence. She looked around her, just noticing the strange mist that had settled on everything, and the sudden chill that swept in.

"There it is, fellas." Wendy grabbed the fence. "The condemned Dust to Dawn."

Mina seemed to share Ochako's hesitance. "Is it just me, or did we just enter some spooky movie?" The pink girl muttered, voice cracking slightly as her eyes darted around. Ochako's fingers clasped around the amulet.

"Totally." Lee grinned at her. "Some people died in there, and the place as been haunted ever since."

"So then why are we actively going inside there?" Shouto asked. "Doesn't that seem a bit dumb? I mean, the supernatural is pretty obviously real in this town."

"So there's a good chance their could actually be ghosts inside," Izuku finished. "But then maybe we really should check it out, see what knowledge they have to share."

"I like your thinking." Wendy grinned at him. "Don't worry guys, that's just an old legend people tell. It's not really that big of a deal." In one smooth motion, she back up, then took a running leap, using the wire of the fence as a springboard and bouncing up and over the top. After that display, everyone else decided to follow suit.

Robbie tried pulling at the doors, to no avail, while Wendy looked through the windows. "I think i-it's stuck."

"Maybe I could take a crack at it?" Ochako offered helpfully.

Robbie snorted. "Oh yeah, I can't get in, but I'm sure 'Little Miss Cheery' over here's gonna break it down like Hercules." It kind of felt like a punch in the gut, but Ochako tried to shrug it off.

"Hey, don't be rude!" Mina stepped forward, looking mutinous.

"Yeah," Izuku added, voice cracking a bit. "You don't even know her, why are you being a jerk?" Her friends coming to her defense warmed her heart and spurred Ochako on. She was going to find a way in, to prove the jerk wrong!

_Up there._ Ochako focused in on the vent. She ran to the side of the building, where the trash was, and scrambled on top of it. The gutter to the roof was well within reach, so she grabbed it and scrambled up the wall of the building, pushing herself up onto the roof.

"Hey, Ochako, what're you doing?" Wendy called up.

"Woah, kid, slow down!" The baseball cap guy, Nate, called after her. Ochako ignored both of them, scrambling up the rood and onto the top of the building, where the vent was situated. She launched herself at it, and it caved in, most likely due to years of being left to collect dust, and ducked inside.

"Nice going, Ochako!" Mina called up. "You can do it!" Ochako grinned to herself and slid down the vent. She landed on another grate, and kicked downwards, dropping into the store. Ochako ran over to the door swinging it open to multiple cheers.

"Great job kid!"

"That was awesome!"

"You're Little Miss Cheery in all the right ways." Mina and Izuku high fived her as they entered.

Now that everyone was inside and the door was closed behind them, Ochako took a proper look around. Everything was dark and dusty, as expected, but it was all in a really neat way, added with the thrill of doing something they probably shouldn't. The whole group 'oohed' and 'ahhed' as they looked around. They all headed in different directions, exploring the store.

"This is even creepier than I imagined," Wendy admitted, looking around.

"Anyone see a light switch?" Lee asked aloud, heading towards some of the isles.

"My pen has a light on it," Izuku called out. He flicked it on, and a small purple light came out of the other side of the pen. "It's a black light though."

"That's pretty neat," Wendy told him. Izuku grinned.

"Thanks! I got this from the shack that first day. It's actually a pretty good pen to write with."

"Found the light switches," someone called out. They all turned to see Shouto standing by said switches. "You think these still work?"

"Try it out!" Mina encouraged. Shouto flipped the switches, and all of the lights in the store flickered on, including grilling machines, coolers, and even the monitoring camera. Ochako looked around a newly lit store with a smile. Suddenly, it didn't seem so creepy anymore.

"So, what do we do now?" Izuku ventured.

Wendy smirked. "Anything we want."

* * *

Izuku enjoyed a newly opened icicle with Wendy, perched on one of the shelves. They had already shoved mints in soda, hit each other with balloons containing all sorts of weird sodas, and grabbed as much unopened candy from the shelves as they could fit in their pockets. Mina had discovered something called 'Smile Dip', and was apparently trying it out now. All in all, Izuku was glad they had come along.

"I'm glad you guys tagged along," Wendy said, as if reading his mind. "This night is like, legendary." At Izuku's questioning gaze, she added, "Look around! The guys are bonding," by shoving ice in Thompson's pants, which would bother him if Thompson didn't seem to still be enjoying himself, "I've never even seen Tambry look up from her phone this long." Which from what Izuku saw of Tambry was a fair assessment, even if he had just met her. "And your friend seems to be going nuts for that smile dip." Izuku looked over to see Mina surrounded by packets of opened smile dip, looking definitely out of it.

Izuku frowned. "Should we...stop her?"

Wendy shrugged. "I dunno man. Your friend, your call." Izuku started to get up, then figured if it really was a problem, Shouto would've yelled at her by now, and sat back down.

"Hey guys, we need more ice!" Nate announced. They looked over so see Nate holding Thompson's pants out, and Lee shaking an empty ice bag over the rest of the ice in Thompson's pants.

"I'll get it!" Izuku volunteered, hopping off the shelf and landing on the floor with a thump. He strolled over to the ice box and opened it up, grabbing one of the ice bags and cradling it in his hands-

And there was a brain, and nerves, and it was floating. Izuku froze, unable to speak as he looked at the floating abomination in front of him. The thing rolled its eyes, which were barely connected to the rest of it, focusing right on Izuku. And then they shot forward, right out of the ice box and an inch away from Izuku's face. He let out a yelp and closed the door as fast as he could.

Izuku looked at the door, breathing heavily. What had just happened? What _was_ that thing? He carefully set the ice bag down and reached for the door handle, slowly opening it to reveal...nothing. There was nothing in there.

"What was that?" Lee wandered over, Nate following close behind. "Thought I heard someone screaming over here."

Nate grinned and wiggled his hands. "You freaking out kid?"

Izuku winced and tried to smile. "N-no, not really. I'm all good, everything's all good!" He scooped up the ice bag and handed it to them. "Here's the ice you wanted."

Lee took the ice bag. "Thanks man." Nate looked behind them.

"Hey look! It's Dancy Pants Revolution!" He called out. "The game that tricks people into exercising!" The whole group moved over to the game, bubbling with excitement.

Izuku stole one last look at the supposedly empty ice box. Had it just been his imagination? No, they were in Gravity Falls, it was probably real. But what was it doing in this store?

"Deku, you coming?" Ochako yelled over to him. Izuku hurried over to where everyone else was gathered. Thompson was already on the machine, and losing pretty bad. Everyone was cheering him on, but that didn't seem to be helping.

Izuku slipped over to Shouto, who was looking somewhat bored. He nudged his friend lightly in the side. "Hey, Shouto, got a moment?" He asked.

Shouto turned to him and nodded. "What is it?" Izuku rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"I-I think I just saw something really weird, and I'm pretty sure this store really is haunted." He explained what had just happened as Ochako wandered over to listen in, gasping when he described the ice box monster.

Shouto furrowed his eyebrows. "This probably isn't good. We should get out of here."

"Let's go get Mina," Ochako agreed, voice wavering a bit. The three made their way over to Mina, who was slumped on the floor with opened packs of Fun Dip all around her, shaking at high speeds and muttering odd phrases.

Shouto picked her up and shook her lightly. "Dammit, we leave you alone for a few minutes and this happens!" He hissed. "How many of those did you eat?"

"Bleventeen," Mina slurred out. Shouto set her down and rubbed his forehead, pushing his hair away from his eyes.

"This is just wonderful," Shouto muttered, glaring at Mina. Ochako bounced on her feet, anxious to leave, while Izuku looked around nervously. "We're in a haunted convenience store and Mina is incapacitated. And how do we convince Wendy and her friends to leave? They probably won't believe us."

"Woah guys," Robbie said from down another row. "You might wanna see this." The three exchanged nervous looks and followed the older teenagers to where two outlines of bodies lay on the floor.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Ochako whispered.

Lee leaned forward. "No way! Then the rumors are true."

Robbie smirked. "Dare you to lie down in it."

"Good idea." Lee nudged Nate. "You go do it." Nate laughed him off and walked over to the outlines.

"Ooh, I'm a dead body, look," Nate snickered, as he stepped into the outlines, sitting down and preparing to mimic on of their poses.

"W-wait!" Ochako stepped forward. "Maybe this isn't such a good idea!"

But it was too late to do anything, as Nate had already settled into the pose. A second later, a green light shone through the outline, enveloping the older boy in a blue-green glow. The lights overhead started to flicker, and everything turned off.

A scream directed Izuku's attention to Tambry, who looked as though she was fading as well as being torn apart. Her cell phone dropped to the floor with a clatter as everyone gasped. Izuku stepped forward and reached for it.

He read aloud: "Status update: AHHHHHHHHH!" The TV monitor turned on, Static blaring out until it finally cleared, revealing Tambry in black and white, looking around in a panic, then pounding on the screen while screaming. Izuku nearly dropped her cellphone in terror.

"Tambry! Tambry!" Wendy called out, sound more panicked than Izuku had ever heard her sound.

Ochako but her lip. "Can you hear us?" Tambry gave no motion of answering them, continuing to pound on the glass.

"What are we supposed to do?" Nate threw his hands up in the air.

"I dunno man! I dunno!" Lee answered him.

"Let's just go already!" Robbie snapped.

"Wait, Thompson!" Izuku followed Wendy's gaze to where Thompson was still playing Dancy Pants, and doing much better than before.

"Wait!" He protested. "I've almost got the high score!" Then he disappeared in the exact same manner as Tambry had, reappearing moments later inside the game's screen. The arrows in the game started to sink into him, as he yelled and curled up to try and avoid them.

"Forget him, let's go!" Robbie yelled. "Just as he said that, the front doors to the store slammed closed with an ominous thud. Wendy ran to the doors and rattled them, to no avail.

"Guys, it's locked!" she yelled.

"Out of my way!" Robbie lifted up the cash register and threw it at the door, where it promptly vanished. In its place was a turquoise light that quickly spread around the entire store.

"Hang on!" Izuku called out, grabbing the journal from inside his pocket and flipping to the page on ghosts. "What ever's doing this must have some kind of reason. If we can figure it out, maybe we can talk to them, get them to stop hurting us!"

"Ooh, they'll let us out of here," Robbie snarked. "Yeah, that makes a lot of sense."

"Yeah right," Lee said nervously. "I'm sure the ghost just wants to talk about his feelings." Not even a moment later, Lee was lifted into the air and vanished as well.

"I'm bonkers for eating you alive!" They all spun around to see Lee in a cereal box, and the cartoon mascot- Oh no. Izuku turned around before he could be sick.

Nate backed away, taking off his cap and rubbing the sweat off of his forehead. "Okay, I'm with you kids, one hundred percent."

Behind him, Mina floated upwards, glowing that same greenish-blue, eyes vacant. "**Welcome,"** She said, except it wasn't her saying that, because that voice definitely wasn't Mina's. "**Welcome to your graves, young trespassers. Ohahahaha!"**

"They got Mina!" Ochako yelped.

"Told her that Fun Dip was a bad idea," Shouto muttered under his breath.

Wendy held her hands up in surrender. "We're really sorry about coming to your store! Can we just go, and not come back?"

"**Well...okay."** The doors opened with a snap. Izuku could barely believe it.

Shouto seemed to share the sentiment. "What, just like that?"

"**But before you go,"** The ghost floated Mina down to where ages old hot dogs were still roasting. "**Hotdogs are half off. I know it sounds strange, but you've got to try some!"**

As most sane people would do, Nate and Robbie screamed and headed for the doors, which slammed shut once again.

"**Just kidding about the hotdog sale!"** The ghost snarled at them.

Robbie held Nate back as he lunged for the ghost. "I don't care about that, just let us go!"

"**I don't like your tone young man!"** Nate vanished. A few seconds later, one of the hotdogs started screaming.

"I think I'm going to be sick," Ochako muttered. Izuku agreed wholeheartedly.

The ghost raised Mina's arms. "**It begins."** Everything started to lift off of the floor. Izuku yelped as his feet left the ground, rising upwards until he slammed into the ceiling. His head spun as he tried to adjust to standing upside-down.

A crunching sound came from above him, and Izuku looked up to see the TV that held Tambry falling right towards his head. Before he could move away, a light blue surrounded it, pushing it to the side.

He looked over to see Ochako gripping her amulet, panting slightly. "You're all good!" She gave him a smile. "That was harder than any other time I've used this. Maybe because the ghost is interfering?"

That would make sense. "Thanks," Izuku replied, looking around for any bit of cover. She spotted Shouto and Wendy ducking into a cabinet and grabbed Ochako's hand, leading her over and diving in with them.

"What do we do?" Wendy asked, desperation filling her voice. "What do they want from us?"

Shouto frowned. "There has to be some sort of pattern. What was everyone doing before they disappeared? Tambry was texting, Thompson was playing a video game, Lee was being sarcastic-"

"Those are all just normal teenage things!" Ochako protested.

Izuku snapped his fingers. "That's got to be it then!" How had he not seen it before?

"Then we don't have any chance to calm them down," Shouto said. "I mean, we're all teenagers. So how else can we fix this?"

Izuku looked through the book, squinting at the page on ghosts. It was too hard to see it properly, so he fished out his pen and turned the light on, deciding that black light was better than no light.

To his surprise, there was more words written on the page than before, words written in invisible ink. Izuku gaped for a moment, then looked through the page for anything useful, settling on an exorcism spell. "I've got it!" He called out. After a moment of thought, he crawled out of the cabinet!

"Izuku, what're you doing?" Shouto called after him.

Izuku looked back. "I know how to fix this!" He snuck behind a piece of debris, keeping the ghost in sight but staying behind them, and started chanting the words of the page.

The ghost turned Mina's head to him, followed by her body. "**What are you doing? Stop that!"** Izuku ignored them and kept chanting. Objects started flying at him, but Ochako stopped them before they hit him.

"-And move on the afterlife, where you belong!" Izuku finished. The ghost let out an eerie scream before the glow around Mina faded and she dropped to the ceiling with a groan. The light around the store started to fade, and Ochako, Shouto, and Wendy scrambled out of the cabinet as everything dropped to the floor again. Bursts of light signaled the return of the older teens. Tambry gasped as she regained her voice. Thompson rubbed his back and Lee clutched his stomach. Nate waved his arms and shook out his legs, glad to have them back.

Mina groaned. "I'm never gonna eat or do anything ever again."

Shouto raised an eyebrow at her. Mina slumped down. "Yeah yeah, I get it." He gave her a small smirk.

"What happened after everything went crazy?" Lee asked aloud.

"Oho, you wouldn't believe it!" Wendy waved her arms excitedly. "Izuku and Ochako figured out how to exercise the ghost, and took it down hard and fast!" Everyone turned to them with smiles as Wendy wove her story, and Izuku flushed. He was still getting used to people liking him. Ochako wouldn't stop smiling.

* * *

The four students spread themselves out in the living room of the shack, unable to even watch TV, due to Stan throwing it out the window for some odd reason. Ochako still felt like she was floating on air, with all the thank-yous and being called 'cool', coming from Wendy's group of friends. The whole day had been one wild ride, but that just seemed par for the course in Gravity Falls.

Izuku was flipping through the journal again, going over it with the black light. Once he had found out there was basically a whole 'nother journal inside the journal, he had been studying it non-stop.

Mina was slumped on the couch looking green, while Shouto offered her some water. She had thrown up just after they had gotten out of the van, and was now dealing with the side effects.

"Hey guys, I think I've got a lead for getting us home!" Izuku exclaimed. Ochako jumped over, Shouto not far behind. Even Mina pushed herself up to listen in. Izuku shown his pen on one of the blank pages, where blueprints for some kind of bunker lay. "If the author is still in town, there's a good chance he's here!"

"Then we'll go there tomorrow," Shouto decided. Mina groaned in protest, and he glanced over to her. "Okay, we'll go two days from now. We should spend tomorrow preparing though. We don't know what will be down there."

Ochako nodded in agreement. A way home was just within grasp, and they were going to take it!

* * *

**And with that, things really start to diverge from Gravity Falls canon. What will the four students find in the bunker? What answers will they uncover? What mysteries will this lead to? Find out next time!**


	6. Bunker Down

Footsteps signaled someone approaching their small group. Mina looked up to see Wendy walking over to them, a slight smile on her face. "Hey guys, Soos," she greeted. "What are you all up to?"

"Oh hey!" Mina waved her over excitedly. "You know how we ran into that spooky ghost a couple days ago?"

"How could I forget?" Wendy chuckled good-naturedly. "That was super intense. How are you feeling, by the way? That fun dip seemed to take a lot out of you." Mina winced, wishing everyone would just drop that incident. It was bad enough that Shouto was constantly reminding her of it, even if he was being nice and getting her water at the same time.

"I'm fine, thanks," she hastily replied, desperate to move on to a different topic. "Well, we did get a good thing out of it! Izuku figured out that there was a whole different section to the journal that talks about Gravity Falls."

"That's right." Izuku held up the journal and pointed his pen-light at it. The page he was on was all about the tree with the hidden switches in the woods, where he had found the journal, and where they were gathering now. "It looks like the author created this secret bunker hidden underneath this tree. We're gonna go down and see if he's down there, or if he left anything behind that could help us get home." He patted the bag of items the five had gathered to help them with whatever could be down there. Mina felt for her grappling hook. She was sure it would come in handy sometime soon.

"To your own dimension, right?" Wendy clarified.

"That's right," Ochako agreed. "It's been like, twelve days already that we've been stuck in this town. We need to get home, no matter how much we like it here."

Wendy held up her hands like she was surrendering. "Don't worry, I wasn't doubting you guys or anything. That makes total sense. I'm just still wrapping my head around the whole 'alternate universes' thing."

"Don't worry, you'll get used to it." Soos assured her.

Wendy scratched the back of her neck. "Yeah, I'm sure I will. So… mind if I join you?"

"Not at all!" Izuku assured her. "We need all the help we can get!"

Shouto studied the tree, and the switch which had apparently opened up the hole in the ground where Izuku had found the journal. "Now the problem is getting down into the bunker." He turned to Izuku. "Did you try any of the other switches when you first opened this thing?"

"Yeah, and none of them did anything." Izuku shrugged apologetically.

"Well then, we just have to cut it down, right?" Wendy suggested, rummaging through their bag of supplies and pulling out the axe they had kept from those wax figures, then tucking it in her back pocket. Mina had decided to bring it along, just in case. "Nice thinking by the way, bringing an axe. Always a good tool to have."

"Nah, dude, that won't work." Soos knocked on the tree, the hollow sound it made echoing through the forest. "This thing is made of metal, not really good material for cutting down."

"Hmm." Wendy stared up at the tree, scanning the branches with her eyes. "Hey, that branch kinda looks like a lever." She gestured upwards. Mina followed her gaze, and sure enough, one of the branches had a lot of obvious nuts and bolt in it.

"I got it!" Ochako grabbed her amulet, and the familiar blue surrounded it …before sputtering out. "What the?" Mina's brown haired friend squinted at the tree. "It's not working! It's never done that before!"

Izuku studied the notebook, before exclaiming, "Don't worry, it still works! It's just that the author magic-proofed his bunker, so magic won't work on it." He squinted upwards. "Guess we'll have to find another way to reach it. Should we go back and get a ladder?"

Wendy waved him off. "Nah, I got this." Wendy shoved her hand back into their bag, and pulled out a rope, tying the ends of it around herself. Then she swung the rope around the tree, and used it to pull her body upwards, quickly shifting the rope up again before she could slide down and repeating the action. Once she reached the leaver, she pulled out the axe. Spinning it around in her fingers, she knocked the leaver up.

"Woah," they all gaped. Mina saw her friends mouths dropping open, and she couldn't help but grin up at the older teenager. "That was amazing!" She called up to Wendy.

"Haha, thanks," Wendy grinned. "My dad forced me to compete in these 'lumberjack games' when I was a kid. I guess I kind of ruled at them."

"No kidding! I can believe that." Izuku laughed, somewhat incredulously.

The tree shook, and began leaning sideways. Wendy quickly undid the rope and jumped off, hitting the ground with a role. Shouto and Soos pulled her to her feet and away from the bottom of the tree as the ground around it slowly sunk downwards. Planks of wood shot out from the side of the hole, forming a staircase.

"I guess that's how we're supposed to get down," Mina remarked, peering into the darkness.

Izuku straightened. "Alright guys, this is it. Everyone ready to go?"

Soos grabbed their bag. "I'm ready dude. Let's just be careful, okay?"

"He's right," Shouto agreed, looking suspiciously at the staircase. "We don't know what's down there, and we don't want to be taken by surprise."

"Of course," Izuku assured him, taking a few cautious steps down the staircase. When nothing funny happened, he beckoned for them to join him. Shouto grabbed the lantern and followed, passing it to Izuku. Mina and Ochako followed after, Wendy and Soos trailing behind them.

They stepped deeper and deeper into the darkness, with only the light of the lantern to let them know where the stairs were, or that they were heading in the right direction. Mina looked around nervously. "How far do these steps go? It feels like we've been walking for a while."

"Looks like they go to here," Izuku answered, stepping off the steps and into a dimly lit doorway. Mina chuckled, somewhat embarrassed. The rest of them followed him inside, all of them gasping as they looked around the room.

"This is so _stupid cool_," Wendy announced. "Totally worth the steps." They ventured further into the room.

"Guess this was the author's Fallout Shelter," Shouto said, motioning to the poster on the wall with the picture of an atom and the words 'FALLOUT SHELTER' printed on it. "He disappeared when the cold war was still going strong, right? It makes sense."

"Unless it was for a different kind of fallout," Ochako countered, examining the dusty books on the rusting metal shelf. "My amulet still isn't working. People don't need magic counters in atomic fallout. At least, I don't think so."

Wendy pulled the poster off the wall, dusting it off with her hand. "This is totally going over my bed."

"He seems to have been preparing for a disaster." Izuku looked over a shelf filled with rations, the contents labeled in years, ending around the 2070s. "But what kind of disaster would need supplies for almost a hundred years?"

"Oh my gosh," Soos gasped. Mina looked over to where he had opened a cabinet filled with different kinds of weapons. The repairman reached inwards and pulled out a brightly colored Pez-dispenser with a dog head on top. "A Smez-dispenser! I remember these things!"

"Smez?" Ochako questioned.

"Y'know," Soos motioned in the air. "Where they put the little square candies in, and they've got cool tops and stuff."

"Oh, I get it." Ochako looked over Soos' shoulder at the candy with interest. "Well call them 'Pez-dispensers. Must be a difference between worlds."

Izuku rummaged through the weapons locker. "Oh, I remember this from the journal!" He pulled out what looked to be a long ceremonial knife. "A magic dagger! The author mentioned this. Didn't say what it does though." He examined the blade with interest, then tucked it in his jacket pocket. "Oh, and some flare guns! That could be useful."

"When do you think we'd need those?" Ochako asked.

Izuku shrugged. "I dunno, but better safe than sorry, right? I mean, we've gotten into so much trouble here in this town, it could be good to have a way to call for help."

"Oh, okay." Ochako took some of the flares from him and tucked them away in the bag. "That's really smart. Good idea." Izuku gave an awkward smile in return.

"Look at this," Shouto held up an empty can of food. "This was opened recently."

Izuku went over and took a closer look. "Yeah, that was definitely opened not too long ago." He looked back up at them with a smile. "Looks like the author might still be down here!"

"Don't jump to conclusions just yet," Shouto warned.

Wendy seemed to focus on something right behind Ochako. "Wait a minute." She walked over and pulled a map off of the wall, revealing a circular door, that was painted with 'CAUTION, STAY OUT' on top of it. "I think I know where he might've gone."

Mina pulled on the wheel-lever, and it opened with a hiss. "Looks like the rabbit hole goes even deeper." She made an exaggerated bow. "After you guys!"

* * *

Shouto crawled through the small tunnel, near the back of the group. He crawled out right after Ochako, to find himself in a room filled with cobwebs and squares, lining all of the walls, as well as the ceiling and the floor.

"Was this room built in the past or the future?" Wendy wondered aloud.

"No kidding," Soos agreed, eyeing the different symbols with interest.

Izuku flipped through the journal. "Well, the author obviously knew his stuff. Who knows how ahead of his time he was?"

"Seriously, this is awesome!" Mina walked backwards after climbing out of the tunnel last. She walked into the tile in the middle of the floor, which sunk into the ground with an ominous hiss. The symbols on the walls all lit up a bright red, and the whole room shook, different tiles on all of the walls closing in on them.

_Of course. Because this couldn't be easy in any way._

"Is it as awesome now?" Shouto muttered to Mina. She winced.

"Okay, maybe I walked into that one."

"Guys, not the time!" Ochako backed into the center of the room. "The walls are literally closing in on us!"

Wendy rammed her body into the wall, to no avail. "It won't stop!"

Heart racing, Shouto turned to Izuku, who was rapidly paling next to him. "What do we do, what does the journal say?"

"Um, right!" Izuku flipped through the pages, landing on one that was labeled 'Security Room'. He shone his pen's light on it. "I really need to get a bigger light for this. Right, there are a few symbols we need to press. Here!" He showed everyone the different symbols. "Someone step on each of these!"

Shouto noticed one of the symbols on the ceiling matched a symbol in the book. "I've got this one," he called out, scrambling up the steadily moving tiles to slam his palm against that specific marking. It sunk inwards and glowed blue.

"Got one here!" Soos yelled, plunging his fist into a different tile.

Wendy stomped on a tile that was still on the floor. "I've got one too!"

Mina pushed in the final marking just before another tile covered it. "That's all of them!" With multiple creaks, and the spewing of steam, a door slid open on the other side of the room to where they had gone in. "Let's go!"

Shouto jumped down from his tile and raced after the other five, barely making it before the tiles covered the door behind him. It slammed shut and he sank against it, letting out a small gasp in relief.

Mina laughed from her place sprawled out on the ground. "We survived!"

"That was kind of close," Ochako agreed with a relieved grin. "I guess we really do need to be more careful."

Wendy pumped her fists in the air. "Wow, that was nuts! We all ruled back there." She held out her fist, which Soos bumped his against eagerly.

"Yeah dudes, we were awesome!" He turned and wandered throughout the room they had found themselves in, grabbing something from the shelves. "Check it out dudes!" He put two flasks in front of his eyes, making them look massive, and stuck out his tongue.

Mina laughed at his antics, and Wendy gave him finger guns. "Soos, Soos. That is hilarious."

Soos grinned at slipped on a lab coat, picking up what looked like a briefcase off of one of the tables. "Do I look smarter with this briefcase or what?"

Shouto gritted his teeth in frustration. The whole point of coming down here was to find the author, or at least to find something that would help them all get home. And yet everyone was treating it like it was some casual adventure. Did the others just not care that much?

"This must've been some kind of surveillance room," Izuku mused, running his fingers over the machines on the walls, which looked like they came straight out of an old spy movie. "I wonder what he was looking at."

"Hey guys! Check out this weird metal closet." They all looked at Wendy as she hovered in the next doorway. "I. Am. A. Robot," she joked, swinging her arms around.

"Coming!" Mina raced over, everyone else not far behind.

"Kind of a tight fit dudes," Soos said, squeezing into the closet.

"I think we can all make it." Izuku pressed his back against the wall.

Shouto looked around the room, noting the distinct lack of a door, save for the one they had just come through. Could the 'closet' be the key to getting further in the bunker? All the other rooms had tricks to move deeper in. He stepped in the closet and pushed his way past the others, heading for the back.

"Ow! Hey Shouto, what are you doing?" Ochako complained as he bumped past her.

Shouto didn't look back. "Checking something out." He felt the back wall, and sure enough, there was a crack in the middle, like an elevator door. "I think this is the key to getting into the next room."

"Yeah?" Wendy looked around. "Let's put on some light, to get a closer look." She pulled some sort of lever near the ceiling. Before any of them could say another word, water sprayed down from above, drenching them all. Then puffs of wind hit them from all sides, pushing the six of them together.

Mina rubbed her head. "Ow! Was that really necessary?" As if in response, the closet flashed red and made an alarming noise, before a sign near the top of the wall lit up, saying 'DECONTAMINATION COMPLETE'. The doors in the back of the closet opened to reveal a scene right out of a mad scientists abandoned lab, with mist and dust and broken tubes.

The light's flicker on, and they all piled out into the room. "This is so cool!" Ochako whispered, looking over at the broken equipment.

"This must've been his hidden lab," Izuku agreed. "Maybe the author did experiments down here."

Shouto's eyes were drawn to the broken tube near the center of the lab. "And maybe the experiments didn't like that."

Soos wiped some sweat off his brow. "I'm getting a bad feeling about this guys. This place gives me the spooks."

Wendy leaned down near the dirt walls. "Huh. What do you think dug all these tunnels?"

"Escaped experiments," Shouto suggested. Mina chuckled nervously.

"Shouto, you know I like a good joke as much as anyone, but now's not the time for that, okay? This place is seriously weird."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Who said I was joking?" Just as he said that, a rumbling growl sounded from inside the tunnels. Shouto could see something's head poking out from one hole in the wall.

"Okay dudes, back to the other room!" Soos took off, the rest of them on his toes, but before they could reach the door, it slammed shut.

Wendy pulled at it desperately. "We're trapped!"

"We'll find another way out!" Izuku ran back in the opposite direction, and, lacking options, they all followed him. There was a tunnel behind the tubes, and they took it, running down the path until they reached a dead end.

Ochako let out a strangled gasp. "Oh no, that's not good!" She clutched her amulet, as though that would help. "What do we do?"

"I- I don't know!" Izuku half-sobbed. "I don't know!" The shadow of the monster loomed nearer, reaching up to its full height and roaring, before another shape, this one human sized, jumped on it. The monster threw it off in retaliation, and snarled in its face. The figure grabbed its tongue and pulled hard, ripping it clean out of the thing's mouth. The monster yelped and scurried away, as the human drew nearer.

Shouto finally got a glimpse of him. The man had slicked back grey hair and goggles, a tan trench coat, and a red vest. He held up his prize. "Welp, I just ripped out a monster's tongue." He threw said tongue on the ground.

"Oh my god," Ochako managed to spit out. Shouto couldn't agree more.

* * *

"Sorry for the mess," the man (the author?) said as they followed him back down the tunnel. "I wasn't expecting guests. I've been down here for a _long_ time. Years. Weeks, maybe. I miss orange juice. Hurry now," he called to the back. I scared it off, but it'll regenerate."

Ochako was almost bursting with questions, but not nearly as much as Izuku, who looked like he was about to explode with curiosity.

"Okay," her friend started, "I have like, a million questions to ask you. I mean, we've been looking for you for a while now-"

The author turned back, surprised. "You have?"

"You have no idea," Shouto deadpanned. Mina stepped on his toes lightly.

"Yeah, we have! I mean, your the guy that wrote the journals, right? You must know all about the info we're looking for! We seriously need your help."

Wendy turned to Ochako. "Wait, this is the guy?" Ochako nodded eagerly. "Sweet!"

"Dude, these kids have been looking for you for like, forever," Soos said. "It's great to finally meet you."

"Why thank you," the author said, looking somewhat bemused. "And I'll answer all your questions soon enough, but we have more important matters to deal with at the moment." They exited the tunnel and back into the main lab. "One of my experiments. A shapeshifter, that can take the form of whatever it looks at. It broke from a cage of solid steel." He motioned to a broken cage. "I've gone half crazy trying to catch it alone. But now you're here! Will you help me?"

"Of course!" Mina agreed. "This'll be awesome!"

"Fantastic! Follow me!" The author lead them down another tunnel. "Sorry for the state of things. I don't get many non-mole people down here." He stroked his chin. "Now, the creature must have some weakness we could exploit. I used to have my research on him, but alas, I lost my journals a long time ago."

Izuku brightened. "Hey don't worry! I've got one of them!" He pulled out Journal 3 and held it up for the author to see. "It's how we tracked you down here!"

The author leaned closer, intrigued. "Could it be? After all these years? Thank you, my boy!" He reached for the journal. Izuku held it out for him, but then pulled it back at the last second. The author frowned. "My boy? Is something wrong?"

Izuku narrowed his eyes at the author. "Hang on a second. If you 'lost your journal', how come it says here that you were going to hide it somewhere no one could find it? And I found it in that hiding place. Something doesn't add up."

Shouto looked at the author with suspicion. "Now that I think about it, he's right. And if you were down here for years, wouldn't you have figured out his weak points by now, even without the journals?"

Ochako caught on, her nerves tingling. "You seemed to know it would regenerate. And it was obvious from reading the journal that the author was smart, you should've caught on to its weaknesses by now. Not to mention, if it was one of your experiments, shouldn't you automatically know those things?"

"You're not the author, are you?" Mina demanded. "He's not even here, is he?"

"Let's get out of here," Wendy started to walk away.

Then the man _changed_. It's eyes became slits, its neck elongated and became skeletal, its mouth went wide and its teeth went inwards. "You're not going anywhere," It hissed, it voice deepening. It crawled up the wall, spider-like legs sprouting from its torso. It roared, and a scream tore itself from Ochako's throat.

"How do you like my true form?" The shapeshifter said, as it changed completely into a monster. "Go on, admit it, you like it."

"What did you do to the real author?" Ochako yelled at him.

"Hah! You'll likely never find him," the shapeshifter sneered. "That six-fingered nerd hasn't been himself in thirty years. But thank you for bringing his journal to me. He used to write in it while I was in my cage. I think it'll have so many wonderful forms to take." The thing leaned closer. "I'll be taking that now."

Izuku leaned back, hugging the journal tightly to his chest. "No way! This is our only way home, we're not letting you take it! Everyone run!" Ochako took him at his word and sprinted in the other direction as fast as she could. A screech sounded from behind them as the shapeshifter gave chase.

Mina ran over to Soos, who was still carrying their bag, as well as the briefcase he had picked up. "Sorry, I need to find something in there!" She poked her hand in, running sideways alongside Soos.

"No problem," Soos panted. "What are you looking for?"

Mina didn't reply. "Found it!" He pulled out a flashlight, then turned it on and threw it down another tunnel. "Everyone hide!" They all found a stone pillar to hide behind. Ochako held her breath as the shapeshifter crept closer, then turned and followed the light down the other tunnel.

"That was a close one," Wendy sighed. "Nice thinking Mina." Mina beamed.

Izuku flipped through the journal. "Okay, we still need to find a way out of here."

"I think we need to deal with the shapeshifter first, actually," Shouto suggested. "If that thing get out, he could and would turn into anyone to try and get that journal. We would never be able to trust anyone again."

"So how do we take care of it?" Soos asked.

"Well," Wendy pulled her flannel jacket off and ripped the sleeve, tying it around a scrape on her knee. "He brought us into his home, tricked us, and tried to destroy us." She narrowed her eyes. "I say we return the favor."

* * *

"Come out, by boy!" The shapeshifter called, followed by a squish and a grunting noise. "I must speak with you!" Izuku pulled the journal closer to his chest. The thing shifted again. "Reveal yourself, you single form human weakling!" It called out in a low voice, slamming some part of itself against the ground.

Izuku looked to Mina, who gave a smile and a thumbs up. That was the signal. Izuku willed his hands to stop shaking as the two of them stepped out from behind a hole in the wall and started walking down the tunnel. He desperately tried to ignore how open and vulnerable they were.

"Oh boy, 'Zuku!" Mina announced cheerfully. "That journal sure has some great monsters in there!" They walked right over to the shapeshifter, who had taken the form of a monster with a thin spider-like body and a massive head. Izuku gulped, and stood his ground, ready to move.

"Ah there you are! Two of you, wonderful!" The thing shifted into Mina. "Should I be one?" He shifted into Izuku, who was suddenly face to face with another version of himself. "Or the other?" The thing smirked. "How about both? It shifted again, changing into some terrifying amalgamation of the two of them that would possibly haunt Izuku's nightmares for a while.

With that, he and Mina took off, the shapeshifter not far behind. They dashed down the tunnels, right to where the others were, standing next to a tube labeled 'H2O'. "He's here!" Izuku yelled. "Do it now!"

Soos and Shouto turned the wheel on the tube. "It's not working!" Soos called out.

The shapeshifter stuck his tongue out, wrapping it around the journal. Izuku pulled back hard, but the thing had latched on tight.

Shouto pulled on the wheel. "Move, the water's about to come!" Izuku felt for anything that could help him, fingers landing on the dagger he hand taken from the weapons closet. Drawing it, he swung the dagger down onto the shapeshifter's tongue, cutting it clean off. The monster screeched and withdrew the rest of his tongue, but before Izuku could celebrate, the water burst out of the tube, catching him off guard and sending him flying away from the rest of his friends. The journal flew out of his hands as he washed back into the main lab with the shapeshifter.

Izuku heard his friends calling out his name as he struggled to his feet. "I'm okay!" He called back, noticing the journal and running to grab it. Before he could reach it, however, someone knocked into him and made their own grab for it. Izuku registered another version of him reaching for his and his friends' way home, and shoved the shapeshifter back. The thing kicked him in the stomach and he winced, before swiping at it's knees. While the thing stumbled, Izuku grabbed the journal. The monster was quick to try and grab it back.

Wendy came charging in, axe in hand. "Wendy!" The shapeshifter called out. "I need help, he's trying to steal the journal!"

Izuku fought to keep the rising panic down. "Don't listen to him, he's the shapeshifter!"

Wendy looked back and forth between the two. "Okay, say something only Izuku would say!"

Izuku was quick to the draw, not letting the shapeshifter get a word in. "We went to the abandoned store together, and I exercised that ghost!" He searched for another thing to add. "And on the second day we were here, you gave us the golf cart, and told us not to hit any pedestrians."

Wendy grinned. "That's right, I did!" She lunged for the shapeshifter.

"No!" The thing called out. "Don't listen to him! No!" But it was too late, as Wendy sunk her axe into the monster's stomach. The thing changed back and roared, pulling the axe out of its chest. Mina and Shouto caught up to them just as the light for one of the pods started blinking green.

"Push him in!" Shouto yelled, stepping forward and pushing against the shapeshifter. Izuku, Wendy, and Mina joined him, shoving against the weakened monster with all their might. A final push did the trick, and the shapeshifter went flying into the pod, which closed around him.

Mina pumped her fist in the air. "Looks like Ochako and Soos did it!"

"No!" The shapeshifter banged against the walls of the pod, changing from human to bulky monster, to raging flames, and back again, but nothing seemed to work. Izuku let out the breath he didn't know he'd been holding.

Soos and Ochako walked back into the lab. "Let's get out of here dudes," Soos said. They all turned to go, but a deep laughter coming from the pod made them turn back.

"You kids think you're so clever," the shapeshifter said, "but you have no idea what you're up against. You will never find the author, and if you keep digging, you'll meet a fate worse than you can imagine."

"We'll take our chances," Shouto said dryly, turning and walking away. After a moment, the rest of them followed.

"Hey wait, I wasn't done threatening you! Hey!" The shapeshifter protested. But Mina closed the door to the lab behind them has the cryopod finally took hold.

They all hovered in the surveillance room for a moment, tired and unsure of what to do next. Ochako finally spoke up. "Let's just get out of here." Her voice was exhausted. A few nods and murmurs of agreement, and they were on their way.

* * *

"So the bunker was a dud," Shouto sighed, as the wooden stairs closed up behind them and the tree rose back into position. "We're not any closer than we were before to getting home." Izuku's friend slumped down onto a tree log.

"Hey, look at the bright side," Mina offered. "We just got to go on another awesome adventure! And we stopped a shape-shifting monster! That's pretty heroic, right?" Shouto glared at her. "Or not. Geez."

"Hey, even if this didn't work out, you guys were awesome down there," Wendy offered. "I can totally see you guys as heroes."

"Thanks Wendy," Izuku said gratefully. He could admit that he was pretty disappointed their lead turned out to be a dud. He'd been so sure they could find some clue as to how to get home in the bunker.

"I'm really sorry we couldn't find the author, guys," Soos sat down next to Shouto. "At least I got his science-y coat and briefcase." He held up said briefcase. Then it opened, to reveal that instead of documents or the like, the briefcase itself was an old laptop. "Woah! What the heck?"

Izuku gasped. "Soos, you did it! That could be-"

"The author's laptop," Shouto finished, looking more excited than Izuku had seen him be all day. "Aka a new lead on how to find the author and get home."

"Looks like it wasn't a dud after all!" Mina poked at the laptop. "It's pretty busted up though. Doesn't look like it'll work."

"I bet I could get this thing up and running again," Soos offered. "Just give me a few days and a lot of duct tape."

"We can do that." Ochako smiled. "Thanks so much Soos! You're amazing!"

Soos chuckled. "It's no problem dudes. Now, since we spent all morning being heroes, who wants a heroes lunch, on me?"

"Absolutely!" And the six of them walked back into town, stomachs empty and hearts full, ready for the next adventure, whatever it would be.

* * *

**In case anyone's worried, I'm not skipping the rest of season 1. Episodes will be out of order because the four UA students are doing things differently than Dipper and Mabel did. In fact, the next chapter is based off of an episode from season 1. **

**For anyone who's curious, Journal 3 does mention a 'magic dagger', but it doesn't say much else about it, or what it does, so any abilities it has aren't actually canon.**

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed. **


	7. Treasure Hunters

"Remind me again why we're doing this?" Shouto asked dryly, as the four friends walked through the woodsy path they had taken some days ago, and towards the lake.

"To get to know the town more, that's why!" Mina hoisted her bag filled with towels and sunscreen further up her shoulder. "We've already spent a while here in Gravity Falls, and we've even gone to the lake before, but we haven't swam at all! I think that's a travesty, one that needs to be corrected as soon as possible."

"Soos is still fixing up the laptop, so it's not like we have anything more important to do right now," Izuku pointed out. Honestly, he was pretty excited himself. A fun activity with his friends where he didn't need to worry about almost dying sounded awesome.

"That's right!" Ochako moved aside some branches to reveal they were at their destination. The beach was more crowded than Izuku had expected, with lots of kids their age working on some sort of arts and crafts project.

Mina eyed them with interest. "I wonder what they're working on. We should go and ask!" Without waiting for an answer, she sprinted down the beach and towards the colorful foldable tables. Izuku adjusted his bag and followed.

"Hello there!" A perky young woman with a worn apron and a sweet smile greeted them as they approached. "Are you here to help with the play?"

"This is the first we've heard of it, sorry," Izuku said. "What sort of play are you working on?"

"We're doing a puppet show, for the little kids in Gravity Falls' daycare center." She gestured around her. "Everyone here is a massive arts and crafts fan, and is either working on the sock puppets or the set pieces. In about a week from now, we're going to be putting on the show for them in the clearing near the waterfall, so they'll be going on an adventure and then settling down to watch."

"That sounds like a lot of fun!" Ochako piped up. "Can we help?"

"Don't we have other things to worry about this week?" Shouto hissed under his breath. "Like the laptop?"

Thankfully the woman didn't hear him. She smiled down at Ochako. "Of course, we'd love some extra hands! "I'm Miss Miller, and I work at the daycare. I'm in charge of this whole show. If your interested in coming again, we start at nine in the morning, and go until three in the afternoon." She gestured to a table where two girls were already working. "Would you mind helping Candy and Grenda with some of the puppets? They volunteered as well."

"No problem," Izuku assured her. "Come on guys." He lead an excited Mina and Ochako, and a reluctant Shouto, over to the table with the two girls.

They looked up from their work as the four friends sat down. "Hey there," One of the girls greeted, voice deeper than almost any man Izuku had heard. She was stocky, with red-brown hair swept into a ponytail and held back by a hello hairpin. "You here to help make the puppets?"

"That's right!" Mina slid down into the seat next to her. "I'm Mina, nice to meet you."

"I'm Grenda," The girl said with a smile. "And this is my friend Candy." She motioned to the other girl, who smiled and gave a small wave. Izuku took a seat across from her and picked up one of the completed puppets. It looked easy enough to do.

"It's nice to meet you." Candy said. She had long black hair and huge circular glasses, which she adjusted at she looked closer at them. "You guys aren't from around here, are you? When you're in a small town like this, you know everyone your age, and I've never seen you before."

"That's right, we just got here," Izuku confirmed.

"Any hopefully won't be here for much longer," Shouto muttered. Underneath the table, Mina stepped on his foot.

"Ignore him," she told the girls. "We're happy to be here. So what are we doing today?"

"Working on these puppet things." Grenda waved the sock she was currently working on in the air. "Most people are busy making the sets, so there's a lot of puppets to make, and not a lot of time to make them. You look awesome, by the way. Super badass," she said to Mina, who beamed at the praise.

"We're so glad you're here," Candy gushed. "If it was just the two of us, there's no way these would get done in time, and then all the little kids would be really disappointed. We don't want to let them down!"

Well now they _had_ to help with this project. Izuku grabbed some of the different fabrics, ignoring Shouto's glare. "Don't worry, we've got your back. Now, what should I do with this puppet?"

Candy grinned and showed him the different ideas Miss Miller had written out, as well as some of their own plans. Mina looked over the different ideas and grabbed a puppet herself.

"This is much better than going swimming," she announced. "I guess we'll be doing that next week."

"Next week?" Shouto sputtered, looking- well, looking kind of furious. Izuku shivered, despite himself. "You're seriously planning on working the whole week on these things? Did you forget about the laptop we have to work on?"

"We didn't forget," Ochako assured him, sounding somewhat taken aback. "But we still need Soos to finish fixing it, and this is something great to do in the meantime, that helps the community. I think it's a good way to pass time."

"So, what's this about a laptop?" Candy asked, gluing googly eyes onto her puppet. The four of them exchanged glances. Izuku wondered how much they should tell these girls. Soos and Wendy already knew, and of course Stan did, but should they just go around announcing that they were from another world?"

"We need the laptop because it has info that could help us get back to our world," Mina said brightly. _Well. I guess we are just going to come out and say it._

"Really? That's so cool!" Grenda leaned in closer. "What kind of world is it?"

"It's a world where everyone has superpowers," Ochako explained, and Izuku fought to keep from flinching at that. He knew Ochako didn't mean anything by it, but it was still a harsh reminder that his power wasn't really his. "We're all in training to become superheroes."

"Fascinating!" Candy adjusted her glasses. "That sounds like an exciting world to live in."

"And one full of hot guys," Grenda added. Izuku choked on air. Mina grinned.

"Oh you bet. Want to hear more?"

* * *

They returned to the beach at nine o'clock sharp the next morning. Mina stretched her arms over her head as she let out a yawn. "I'm really glad we decided to do this. It's a ton of fun! And Grenda and Candy seem like really nice people."

"And very talkative people." Shouto kicked a pebble. It flew forward and landed in the sand with a soft thump. "Might not be long before the whole town knows where we came from."

"That's not really a bad thing," Ochako said. "Everyone here seems pretty neat. I don't think any of them would mind all that much."

"Maybe not them," Shouto conceded. "But if anyone outside of Gravity Falls found out…."

"They probably wouldn't believe a thing." Izuku gave Shouto a reassuring look. The other boy looked away. "Come on, let's enjoy ourselves! And make some new friends while we're at it." They reached the tables, where a couple of other kids were already sitting down to work.

Miss Miller hurried over to them. "You came again, wonderful! I'm so glad, we need all the help we can get. Those kids will be so happy with all the work you've put in."

"We're really glad," Mina answered honestly. She had enjoyed making the wax Stan figure with Ochako, and was happy for the opportunity to work on some crafts again. The fact that it would entertain a bunch of kids was an added bonus.

"Miss Miller," one of the other teens called out. "We're out of blue paint, and we still need half of the sky background done." Miss Miller let out a small sigh. The woman looked exhausted.

"Shouto and I can go and get it," Mina offered. Said boy looked at her like she had just grown another head. Even Izuku and Ochako looked surprised. "Ochako and Izuku can keep working on the puppets while we go into town and get some paint."

"S-sure, we don't mind." Izuku looked at Mina curiously, then handed her his journal. "Here, I drew a sketch of the town, if that helps. Come on Ochako, let's go." Ochako seemed confused, but let herself be led over to the table they had sat at previously. Mina watched her two friends pick up the socks once again.

Miss Miller clasped Mina's hands. "Thank you so so much! Here, this should be enough to buy the paint." She let go and fished around in her purse, pulling out a few twenty dollar bills. "Can I trust you to bring back the change?"

"Of course! You can count on us! We'll be off now, bye." With that, Mina dragged Shouto away from the beach, and back onto the woodsy path.

"What the hell was that all about?" Shouto demanded.

Mina raised an eyebrow at him. "Honestly? You obviously didn't want to be there, and you were just going to make everyone else miserable, including our new friends. So instead, we're going out to do something 'productive'." She made finger quotes as she said this. Maybe it was a bit harsh, putting it like that, but Mina's patience with Shouto's unrelenting pessimism was starting to wear thin. She understood wanting to get home, she really did. But did he have to remind them every time they wanted to do something fun? And even when they were looking for ways to get home, he stayed skeptical the whole time. Mina was pretty fed up with it.

Shouto didn't respond, other than letting out a soft huff and continuing to walk in stony silence. Mina winced. Perhaps she should've been nicer with her words. Yeah, she definitely could've.

"Shouto, I'm really-"

"We're at the shack," he said, striding forwards. Inwardly, Mina fumed. She understood his anger, but he didn't have to be a total jerk about it! She picked up her pace and followed him into the Mystery Shack.

Stan was there in the gift shop, rummaging for something behind the counter. "Hey there." He stuck up his hand and gave a small wave, not looking up from whatever he was doing. "Have you seen my keys? I need to get to town, and I'm sure as hell not walking." A pause. Then: "Found them!"

And idea popped into Mina's head. "If you're going into town, can you drive the two of us there?" She pointed at herself and Shouto, who crossed his arms and said nothing.

Stan narrowed his eyes at them, then shrugged. "Sure, why not. Don't have anything better to do."

* * *

Stan honked at the vehicle in front of him as Mina and Shouto munched on the chips they had found in the backseat. "Come on, what's with all this traffic?" The older man complained, pressing his hand down again and again on the honker. "And why is it all-" Stan narrowed his eyes at the scene in front of him, while Shouto did a double take. "Covered wagons?"

Instead of the usual cars, people were riding down the streets of Gravity Falls in covered wagons pulled by horses, wearing dresses and fur hats on their heads. Maybe it wasn't the most unusual thing Shouto had seen here, but it was still pretty _weird_.

"Oh no, no no!" Stan swerved and took a sharp turn and the next street, zooming off and leaving a trail of smoke behind him. "Not today, Not today!" He had to push on the brakes hard, because women in bonnets were standing in the middle of the road holding baskets of tomatoes and herding geese. Stan put the car in reverse, and Shouto gripped the edge of his seat as they flew in the other direction.

Finally, Mina spoke up. "Stan, what's going on?" Stan ignored her.

"We gotta get out of here. Before it's too late!" He slammed on the brakes again to avoid hitting another wagon as a bunch of them moved around the car. "They've circled the wagons. We're trapped! Nooooo!"

A cow looked at them with wide innocent eyes from outside the window. Mina looked at it with a little bit of awe and smiled. "I've got a good feeling about today."

Once the wagons moved away, Shouto and Mina exited the car and had a look around. Strings of red, white, and blue flags were strung from all the different shops, criss-crossing the streets. Tepees were set up around the edges of the roads, and everyone was wearing something that made them look like they walked right out of the eighteen-hundreds. A stage made of logs was set up in the middle of the road, in front of the big statue Gravity Falls had. A banner on it said 'Pioneer Day'.

"Oh boy," Stan walked up to them and viewed the town with distaste. "It's Pioneer Day. Every year these Yahoos dress up like idiots to celebrate the day Gravity Falls was founded."

Toby determined skipped on up to them, rolled up newspapers in his hands. Shouto glared at him, not forgetting that he had lured them into Gideon's trap a few days ago. "Welcome to 1863!" He waved a newspaper in Stan's face.

Stan rolled up his suit sleeve. "I will break you, little man!" Toby yelped and scampered off.

Mina took in the whole scene with wide eyes. "Wow, look! Candle dipping! Oh, and gold panning." There was Fiddleford, cackling like usual and shaking a pot in front of awed children.

Shouto squinted. "Woodpecker marriage?" A man with gray hair was being pronounced 'man and wife' with a woodpecker on his arm. "Is that even legal?"

"Actually yeah." Mina pulled out the journal and flipped through it. "In Gravity Falls it used to be legal to marry a woodpecker."

The man must have overheard them because he leaned towards them. "Oh it's still legal," he said. "Veeery legal." Shouto shuffled away a few paces.

"Come, one and all, to the opening ceremony!" someone announced. Mina grinned at him.

"We should go!" She said.

Shouto frowned. "What about the paint?" Mina waved him off.

"We can get that latter. Besides, we're never going to get to participate in Pioneer Day again. We should enjoy it while we're here." She turned to Stan. "Are you coming?"

"No thank you," Stan scowled. "I don't see why you kids would want to waste your time here going to this mess of a 'holiday'. And know that if you come back to the shack talking like these people, I'll never forgive you."

Shouto locked eyes with Mina. As much as she constantly got on his nerves, for once they were in total agreement.

Shouto looked Stan right in the eyes and swung his arms around like someone in one of those old cartoons. "There's a carpet-bagger in the turnip cellar."

Mina grinned. "Well hornswoggle my habersack." In unison, they both spit on the ground.

"I hate you both." Stan stomped away. They watched him go for a moment, then headed over to the stage, where a crowd was gathering.

"That was pretty funny, Shouto," Mina said. "Why don't you have fun more often?"

As if she had any right to talk. Mina got on Shouto's nerves more than anyone else in this town. She was always ready to goof off and do something completely unrelated to trying to get home. It was like she didn't even want to leave. Not to mention how she seemed to be rubbing off on the others. More and more Izuku and Ochako would get distracted by some funny new thing in Gravity Falls and ignore the fact that they were _stuck in another universe_. Like now with the puppet show, for example. And yet Mina seemed to imply that he was the one in the wrong here.

Shouto didn't bother answering her, just turned and looked at the stage, where one of the cops was standing next to a microphone, and three well dressed people were sitting. "Hear ye, hear ye!" The sheriff called out. Ye ole commencement ceremony is about to commence." The deputy ran onto the stage, screaming and ringing a cowbell as hard as he could.

"Oh no! Police, my purse!" An old woman called out.

The two stared at her for a moment, then smiled. "Ring ring! Ring ring!" The deputy did a little dance.

The sheriff chuckled. "He sure loves that bell." Shouto grit his teeth and looked for where the apparent purse snatcher was, but didn't find anyone.

The sheriff moved offstage, and the blond teenager about their age took the microphone, tapping on it first to make sure it worked. "Howdy everyone," she said. "You all know me, Pacifica Northwest, great-great granddaughter of Nathaniel Northwest, founder of this wonderful town. I'm also very rich." Everyone clapped, including the people onstage, who Shouto assumed were her parents. "Now, if you've got the pioneer spirit, we ask you to come on up and introduce yourselves!"

Mina bounced on the balls of her feet. "I'm gonna go do it! This'll be fun!" Before Shouto could say anything, she raced up onto the stage.

Pacifica smiled blandly. "Our first newcomer is-" she took a look at Mina and cringed. A bad feeling stirred in Shouto's gut.

"Hello everyone, I'm Mina! Let's get this Pioneer Day started!" She pumped her fists in the air. "USA! USA! USA!"

"USA! USA! USA!" Everyone cheered back, repeating the motion. Pacifica seemed to get over her shock just then and smirked. Shouto's bad feeling increased, climbing upwards.

"Sorry, but if you haven't heard Pioneer Day is for humans, not aliens," the blond girl leered. "Maybe go back to your spaceship and let us humans have our fun day."

Mina waved her off. "Oh haha! You're pretty funny. I'm human too, don't worry."

"Really? Pa-lease, I've seen cats that look more human than you." Pacifica leaned over and pulled one of Mina's horns, Shouto's fellow student yelped in surprise. Shouto clenched his fists and started for the stage, but Mina caught his eye and shook her head. "But hey, you've definitely got guts, coming out and trying to interact with society with that mug of yours. I'll give you points for that." She smiled at the crowd. "Give her a hand everybody!" The towns people clapped excitedly, obvious, and Mina jumped off the stage and right past Shouto and the rest of the crowd.

Shouto followed her, unsure of what to say. How did someone comfort another person? What did Fuyumi do when he was down? "Don't listen to her," he tried. "She doesn't know shit. She's not even from our world, she doesn't know a thing about you."

"I know that." Mina smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. "Thanks for trying. I know you were going to come up and try and stop her, I appreciate it. It's not anything I haven't heard before anyways." Shouto felt anger building in his stomach, directed towards Pacifica. Why? It wasn't like he cared that much about Mina. They weren't friends, just fellow classmates stuck in a bad situation together. Maybe it was just that he hated bullies.

(Maybe it was just that he hated feeling so _useless_.)

"Why didn't you let me?" He asked. "Stop her, I mean. Why didn't you stop her yourself?" Mina shrugged.

"She's obviously very popular in this town," she explained. "That wouldn't end well. Besides," and this time she managed a more genuine grin. "I think I know of a better way to get revenge on her." They sat down on the steps of the statue. Mina pulled out the journal and started to flip through it, resting on one of the pages. She held it out. "Here."

Shouto took the journal and read the passage aloud. "In my investigations, I recently made a discovery. Nathaniel Northwest may not be the founder of Gravity Falls. I believe the proof of this secret is buried somewhere on the enclosed document."

"See? This is a much better way to get her back then yelling at her in front of everyone." Shouto nodded absentmindedly and took the document out of the journal. It was a triangle, surrounded by odd symbols and filled with small words.

He stood up. "Alright, let's solve this and bring down this fraud of a family."

"Yeah!" Mina beamed, standing up as well. "Let's do this!"

* * *

The two of them settled in the library, pulling any books off the shelves they thought could be useful. Mina hummed to herself slightly as she flipped through one about Egyptian hieroglyphs.

"Oh, what about this?" She ventured, holding up the book. "The biggest symbol on here is actually the symbol for flame, so what if we light the parchment on fire? That could reveal the secret message."

"Somehow I doubt it," Shouto absentmindedly folded the document over as he looked through different books. "And if you're wrong, then our only lead is gone for good."

Mina pouted. "Well, when you put it that way." And now Shouto was back to being grumpy and no fun again. It was a really nice surprise, seeing him so angry over what Pacifica had said to her. He had looked like he was ready to punch the blond for Mina's sake. Mina smiled at the thought of that. Even if Shouto denied it, it was pretty obvious he cared.

Not that it made him any less of a jerk. Or that she wasn't annoyed with him anymore. Mina glanced over at Shouto's folding, and did a double take.

"Hey, hang on!" She snatched the document away, to Shouto's protests. "Look at this. You folded it into a map!"

Shouto blinked down at his work with faint surprise. "So I did. Looks like we have our next clue."

"We're on the lookout for two kids who might be reading." They both turned at the familiar voice, to see the Sheriff and Deputy entering the library.

"We're hunting them down for secret reasons. Wahoo!" The deputy rang his bell as loud as he could.

Mina caught Shouto's eye. "Think they're talking about us?" Shouto gave a slight nod and they dove under the table as the two policemen looked around, smacking a few books off the shelves before moving into a different aisle.

"I think we should take this somewhere else," Shouto murmured. The two slipped out of the library. "Where does the map lead to?"

"Let's check the journal," Mina suggested. "Izuku said he sketched a map of the town in there." She flipped open the journal and skimmed the pages until she got to the one she was looking for. He held it out, and Shouto put the map next to it. "Alright, looks like we're going to the Gravity Falls Museum of History."

The two followed Izuku's sketch until they arrived at said museum. Walking in the doorway, a woman gave them both stickers and balloons, and made their way through the exhibit, stopping in front of A strange triangle statue.

"The next clue should be here." Shouto squinted at the painting. "But how does this painting hide a clue?"

"Who knows? Guess we'll have to find out." Mina flopped onto the bench in front of the painting and looked at it hard, but nothing came up. She sighed and flipped upside down, trying to get a new perspective.

"Mina, what are you doing now?" Shouto sighed, sounding exasperated. Mina couldn't focus on that though, not when she had found the next clue!

"Come over here and look at it this way," she instructed.

Shouto looked at her skeptically. "Upside down?"

"Yeah! Just do it." Shouto hesitated, then joined her, gasping when he saw what she was seeing. The painting wasn't abstract, it was simply upside down. And it revealed a very familiar statue.

"I've seen this before," Shouto said. "I know where this statue is. It's in the cemetery."

"Then that's where we'll go." Mina swung her feet around and jumped off of the bench, Shouto right behind her. A high pitched wail sounded from the front doors, and they looked to see the policemen entering the museum.

"So they were after us." Shouto eyed the door. After a moment, the police moved in a different direction. "Let's make a run for it, now."

* * *

"The statue must be pointing to the next clue." Shouto looked in the direction of the pointed finger but could see nothing but more gravestones and rolling hills. Nothing that looked like a clue of any sort.

"Maybe we need to see it right from the statue's perspective?" Mina climbed underneath the pointing hand of the statue, bumping her head against its hand as she tried to stand up. "Wa- ow!" She rubbed the top of her head, then looked up in surprise. The pointer finger on the statue's hand had bent at an odd angle.

A rumble sounded from behind them, and Shouto turned around. One of the markers had slid to the side, revealing many steps underground.

"You did it," he marveled aloud.

Mina puffed out her chest. "Of course I did! Now let's go see where it leads." They walked down the steps, traveling deep underground. Eventually, the steps led to an underground tunnel, which they walked down.

Mina looked at a button on the ground, and purposefully stepped around it. "I messed up at the bunker, but this thing's not getting me again," she vowed.

The tunnel ended with another tunnel, which looked more like a slide. The two students shared a look.

Shouto gave a sarcastic bow. "After you."

"Don't mind if I do, thank you very much." Mina knelt down and slid down the tunnel. Shouto crouched and followed after her. The two tumbled through the darkness and skidded into a small room.

Shouto pulled himself to his feet and took a look around. The room was filled with old relics, from a thirteen colonies flag to swords and axes, to telescopes and treasure chests. The whole room was an amazing blast to the past. But what really caught his attention was the documents situated on a small table in the back of the room.

Mina picked up some documents on another shelf. "Check this out. Ben Franklin was secretly a woman in this universe."

"Seriously?" Shouto paused and looked over at the paper Mina was holding. "Huh, who'd have thought. I wonder if he or she was in our universe too."

"Who knows? Guess we'll have something to check out when we get home." The two continued on to the back of the room, where a giant folder read 'NORTHWEST COVER-UP'. "Ooh, jackpot!"

Shouto flipped it open and read it aloud. "Let it be here recorded that Nathaniel Northwest, famous in his native Gravity Falls for standing in the park and hitting himself with a large boating oar until he blacked out...was in fact, a fraud." He scanned the the paper more. "Other hidden historical truths include that Thomas Jefferson was really two kids in an overcoat, Santa Claus is the real president of the United States for eternity, Mount Rushmore is really a bunch of giant robots, there's a time-devouring baby from another dimension trapped in a glacier…."

"So basically Pacifica's ancestor was a huge idiot," Mina summarized with a smile. "Oh, I can't wait for the papers to publish this story." She leaned forward. "Does it say who the real founder was then?"

"The true founder of Gravity Falls was Sir Lord Quentin Trembly III, Esquire," Shouto read.

"Who's Quentin Trembly?" Mina wondered. "Never heard of him."

A light shone on them from behind. "That's none of your business," The Sheriff snapped. The two students spun around to find the two cops standing in front of the exit.

The deputy rung his bell. "Woohoo! We got ya, we got...ya…" he fell over, hitting the ground with a thump, revealing about a dozen tranquilizers in his back.

The sheriff gave an apologetic shrug. "He got his with quite a few of those darts. While the deputy struggled to his feet, the sheriff took the papers from the desk. "I hate to do this, but Quentin Trembly is a matter of national security."

"Seriously?" Mina gaped. "What did he do?"

"And who is he anyway?" Shouto eyed the papers in the sheriff's hands, wondering if he could snatch them back.

The sheriff took off his hat and pulled out an old-fashioned film. "See for yourself." He put it in the projector the room had stored. A black and white video appeared on the wall, showing the US government's logo.

A middle aged man with what Shouto assumed to be grey hair appeared on the wall. "If you're watching this," the man said, "then you are one of eight people in these United States with clearance to view this view this information. In fact, I myself will be shot as soon as the filming is complete." Someone said something off-screen, and the man turned to them. "What no? Ha, that's a relief." The man cleared his throat and started again.

"Of all of America's secrets, the most embarrassing was that of Quentin Trembly, the eighth and a half president of the United States.

"President?" Mina echoed incredulously.

"Eighth and a half?" Shouto looked at the picture of Quentin Trembly. He was….interesting, with a balding head, massive mustache, and circular spectacles.

"After winning the eighteen thirty-seven election in a landslide," and here the video showed a landslide taking out all the other campaigners, "Quentin Trembly quickly gained a reputation as America's silliest president. He waged war on pancakes, appointed six babies to the supreme court, and issued the de-pantsipation proclamation. His state of the union speech was even worse." Here, they had a voice reenactment of Quentin Trembly, saying 'The only thing we have to fear is gigantic man-eating spiders!'

The video continued. "He was kicked out of office, and escaped to an uncharted valley he named, Gravity Falls, after plummeting into it at high speeds. Trembly's shameful term was erased from history, and was officially replaced by William Henry Harrison as president, and local nobody Nathaniel Northwest as founder of Gravity Falls. The whereabouts of President Trembly's body are unknown." The video flickered out, and Shouto took a moment to process all of what he had just heard.

"Until now." And with that the sheriff gestured to another, more hidden corner of the room, where Quentin Trembly himself was standing, encased in some sort of orange-yellow substance. "Fool thought he could live forever by encasing himself in a block of solid peanut brittle."

"That's amazing!" Mina poked the peanut brittle.

"Finding Trembly's body was our special mission," the sheriff continued. "And now, thanks to you, it's complete." He tipped his hat towards them.

"Who knew all we would have to do was follow a pink-looking girl from another universe." the deputy chimed in. So it seemed everyone did find out about them being from another universe. Shouto stole a glance at Mina, who looked ashamed.

"Now that you know the truth, well, we can't let you go around talking about it," the sheriff said. "You'll be coming to DC with us. I'm sure Washington will be very interested to know about two people from another universe."

* * *

Mina pounded against the wood of the box they were being kept in. Eventually, she gave up and slid down onto the floor. "Ugh. This is all my fault. I'm so sorry Shouto." And they hadn't even told Izuku and Ochako what they were doing. Would the two come looking for them? Would Mina ever see her home and parents again? Her eyes stung, and she rubbed at them.

Shouto sat down next to her in silence. After a moment, he muttered something under his breath.

Mina turned to look at him. "What was that?" Shouto took a deep breath.

"I'm sorry too. For dismissing you earlier." Shouto fiddled with his pin. "We're all taking this whole 'stuck in another world' thing differently, and I shouldn't have been- shouldn't have been so harsh. Besides, you were the one who figured out most of the clues that uncovered this mystery."

"It's okay, seriously." She assured him. "Besides, you figured out a clue yourself." Mina's hands shook as she pulled her knees to her chest. "You were right. I went around announcing to everyone that we were from another world, and now they're gonna take us away because of it. I thought you were just being paranoid and grumpy, but you were right."

"We both messed up, then. And now we've both apologized." Shouto gave a small shrug. "I think that makes us even."

"Alright then." Mina gave him a watery smile, and snapped off a bit of peanut brittle from Trembly's encasement. "Truce?"

He eyed the brittle. "Isn't that stuff hundreds of years old?"

"I mean, it has held him all this time. It's probably not too bad." After a moment of internal debate, Shouto took the brittle. "Truce. Mystery Crew, and all that."

Mina smirked. "I thought you hated that name, when Soos called us that." Shouto looked away.

"I guess it's been growing on me. And we did just solve a real mystery just now, so I think-" he cut himself off, eyes going wide. "What the hell?"

A cracking sound captured Mina's attention, and she turned to look at what Shouto was seeing. Thin lines were appearing all over the peanut brittle that held Trembly captive. Then the whole thing crumbled down around the frozen man, leaving him in tact.

"It is I!" He announced. "Quentin Trembly!" And with that, he tore off his pants in true patriotic fashion.

Shouto gaped at him. "You're alive. You're actually alive."

"Peanut brittle does really preserve someone's life." Mina waved around the brittle she was still holding for emphasis. "You're actually kind of brilliant!"

"And so are you two!" Trembly smiled. "For following my clues, and freeing me from my delicious tomb!" He took a look around them. "By Jefferson! We seem to be trapped in some sort of crate-shaped box!"

"Pretty sure it's just a crate," Shouto remarked.

"Aha! Good thing I have the president's key, which can open any lock in America!" Trembly moved over to the edge of the crate and jabbed the side with his key, a couple times at first, but then more rapidly, and with an air of annoyance.

"I, ah, don't think that's going to work," Mina offered.

"Wood," scoffed Trembly. "My age old nemesis." He turned to them. "In order to get out of here, this is going to take the silliest plan ever conceived." He pounded his fist for emphasis. Shouto turned to Mina and gave her a look, as if to say: _well, this one's on you_.

Mina hummed and looked around the crate. "How about….that hole?" She pointed at a small hole in the wood.

"We will leap through it!" Trembly declared. He pounced at the hole, and with a look and a shrug, Shouto and Mina leaped after him. With the combined strength of two teenagers and an adult, the crate gave way around them, setting them all free.

"Wonderful work you two!" Trembly said. "I knew I could count on the siblings!"

"The what- um," Mina coughed awkwardly. "We're not siblings."

"We're not even related." Shouto stared at the man as if he had finally gone bonkers. "We don't even look alike. What gave you the impression that we were siblings?"

"Hmm, are you sure?" Trembly asked. "I was positive that I would be rescued from my tomb by two twins. Are you sure that you aren't them?"

"Pretty positive." Mina patted Trembly's shoulder. "Don't worry, you can't get them all right." She scooped up the documents that had put them into this predicament, which the policemen had left on the floor right outside of their crate. "Come on, we need to get out of here, before we get too far away from Gravity Falls!"

They raced to the end of the car, and opened the door, to find the deputy getting some ice. Seeing them, he dropped the bucket.

"Blubs!" He called out. The sheriff came out of their car, as the three ran to the other end of the car."

"It says 'do not enter!'" Mina said.

"The emergency exit!" Shouto grabbed the ladder rungs and climbed upwards, pushing open the exit door. Mina and Trembly followed him, emerging on the roof of the train-car. Wind whipped around Mina's face as she took a moment to find her footing, watching the trees zooming past them. The three ran down the length of the roof, stopping when the next train car was a bunch of logs instead of a normal cabin.

With nowhere else to go, they turned to face the policemen, who had caught up to them.

"There is, no, escape!" Blubs panted. "I- I gotta take a knee." He fell on one knee, and the deputy took his shoulders with concern.

"Are you okay?" The deputy asked. "Can I get you anything?" Blubs smiled at him.

"Edwin Durland, you are a diamond in the rough."

Shouto coughed awkwardly. "Blubs, are you seriously gonna lock us all away in a government facility, just like that?"

Blubs winced. "I got no choice kid. Our orders come from the very top!"

Mina frowned in thought, then brightened and turned to Trembly. "Hang on. Trembly, did you ever sign an official resignation?" Shouto's eyes widened, and Mina knew he had caught on.

Trembly stood tall and proud. "No sir! I ate a salamander and jumped out the window."

"Then technically, you're still legally the president of the United States," Shouto said. He turned to Blubs and Durland. "So you have to answer to him. He is the very top, after all." The two policemen gasped.

"As president of these several United States," Trembly proclaimed, "I hereby order you to pretend none of this ever happened! A-and go on a delightful vacation." He jumped as a pole sticking out from the side of the cliff they were going past hit his head. "Ow! Nyeah!"

The policemen looked at each other, and Mina hoped they'd take the bait.

"Vacation?" Blubs said with a smile. "What place have you always wanted to visit?"

"Silly Water Fun Slides in Grand Lakes Michigan!" Durland cheered. Mina breathed a sigh of relief.

With the two cops on their way to Michigan, the three got off back at Gravity Falls train station. Mina stretched out her arms, relief filling her body at the fact that they were back in this weird little town. She never would've thought she'd miss it this much.

Trembly knelt down and put his hand on Mina's shoulder. "You done a great service to your country Mina." Mina decided not to tell him she was really from Japan as he rummaged through his pockets and pulled out a foldable top hat. "As thanks, I'd like to make you an official US congressmen!" He placed the hat on Mina's head. She turned to Shouto with a grin.

He eyed her wearily. "Oh no." Mina snickered.

"And Shouto!" Trembly focused on him. "You I cannot make a congressmen, because you are already a member of the secret order of the Pine Trees!"

"The what?" Shouto looked down. "You mean this? This is just a pin I got from the shack's gift shop."

"However!"

"Ah, of course."

"I can bestow upon you this!" He held out his key. "The president's key. To unlock the secrets of this wonderful land." Shouto took it and put it in his pocket. They walked into town together, where the celebrations were still going strong, as Trembly told them some interesting stories about his past.

"-and then he chased me around and spanked me with a paddle for like, three hours! Bottom line, George Washington was a jerk."

"Sounds like one," Mina said sympathetically. They stumbled across Pacifica, who was getting into the car with her snooty parents.

"Aren't you going to show her the documents?" Shouto asked. Mina watched them get ready to drive away. After everything they had accomplished that day, the embarrassment and frustration she had felt at the blond girl earlier was pretty much gone.

"You know what?" Mina smiled. "I've got nothing to prove. All the people who matter think I look awesome. I _know_ I look awesome. Who cares what she thinks of me? I know what really matters."

Shouto frowned. Mina wondered if she had said something wrong, but then- "Well, I just don't like her." And with that, he took the documents and handed them to Pacifica through the window. "Nathaniel Northwest didn't found Gravity Falls, and your whole family is a sham. Deal with it." Mina laughed at Pacifica's screech as the car pulled away.

"Children, I am needed elsewhere." Trembly said. "Just know that I will always be right here: on the negative twelve dollar bill."

Mina took the bill with wonder. "Wow, this is worthless!"

"It's less than worthless, my girl!" Trembly corrected. "Trembly away!" And with that, the eighth and a half president jumped backwards onto a horse, which galloped away. They watched in awe.

"You know," Shouto started, "we were supposed to get blue paint."

"Aw man! I knew I forgot something!" And with that, the two ran off to finally get that paint.

* * *

"Your friends were going to get the paint, right?" Candy asked as she fitted one of the puppets with a shirt. Ochako nodded.

"That's what they said. And with Shouto and Mina, they can usually keep each other on track." She glanced at the path in the woods. "I'm surprised they've taken this long."

"They should have been back hours ago." Izuku tapped the table nervously. "I'm starting to get really worried."

As if on cue, the two burst out of the woods and onto the beach, both carrying cans of paint. "We have returned!" Mina announced, flinging her arms in the air for extra emphasis. "And we come bearing paints!" The kids working on the set pieces immediately swarmed them.

"Looks like we didn't have to worry!" Ochako waited for the two to make their way over. "What took you guys so long?"

"We got caught up in a government coverup," Shouto deadpanned.

"We met the eighth and a half president of the United States!" Mina added. "And ran on top of a train, and now I'm a US congressman!"

"We met Stan in town. He was locked up in one of those old-time wooden things for cutting off hands." Shouto pulled out an old looking key. "Apparently the president's key works on locks like that."

Izuku blinked. "Sounds like you guys had a huge adventure."

"And without us? Seriously?" Ochako pouted.

Mina and Shouto shared a smile, and Ochako noticed they seemed much less on edge with each other than before. Maybe this whole adventure was good for them. The two sat down at the table.

Shouto picked up a sock. "Now all we need to do is wait for Soos to fix the laptop, and we're back on track to getting home."

"And we need to finish this play," Mina interjected. "We did make a commitment." Shouto sighed, but it lacked any heat, and Ochako took that as a victory.

The rest of the day passed by quickly, and the sock opera started to take shape.

* * *

**I hope you guys are ready, because a certain triangle will be appearing in the next chapter. How will having all of this happen so early on in the story affect our heroes? Guess you'll have to wait and see!**

**I hope you enjoyed, and please review!**


	8. No Strings

**Hey there readers! A couple of quick notes before the chapter starts.**

**I've been getting a few questions regarding this story, so I'm just going to answer them right here:**

**1\. Yes, Dipper and Mabel do exist, and the fact that they aren't at the Mystery Shack is a plot point in and of itself (They've already shown up in the story, shhh). They haven't been mentioned yet because those who know about them don't trust the UA students enough to tell them, and the students don't know enough to ask about them. This will change later on.**

**2\. People have been asking about why there are episodes from season two so early on in the story, and if the rest of season one is being skipped over. No, season one will still happen. But because the four main characters have much more drive to solve the mysteries of Gravity Falls than Dipper and Mabel did, they're discovering things much faster than the twins did. This chapter is based on a season two episode, and the next one won't be based on any episode, but after that, we'll be seeing more of season one adventures.**

**3\. Speaking of episodes, not every episode from Gravity Falls will show up in this story, simply because Izuku, Ochako, Shouto, and Mina are different than Dipper and Mabel. Double Dipper, for instance, will not be a chapter here, because Candy, Grenda, and Pacifica have already been established, and none of the four students would think of using the copy machine to make doubles of themselves, so it would be pointless to write about. Many episodes will still show up though, so don't worry.**

**4\. When it comes to romance, that is the only part of the story I have yet to plan out. The Mystery Crew may end up with each other, or they may end up with someone from the town. I honestly don't know yet. In fact, if people have suggestions, I'd be glad to hear them. Keep in mind though that everyone just met each other a few weeks ago, so any romance might be a ways away.**

**With all that said, s****orry for the long intro. I hope you enjoy the chapter, and please review!**

* * *

The sun rose on another beautiful Gravity Falls morning. Birds sang, flowers bloomed, manotaurs chased a bear with multiple heads around the forest, and four friends gathered in the town's most popular tourist trap.

"Alright gang!" Izuku set the newly fixed laptop down on the kitchen table with a loud thud. It was still cracked and rusted in places, and there was a lot of tape holding it together, but it would hopefully work anyways. "Soos fixed up the laptop! And now we finally get to see what's inside."

"About time," Shouto said, leaning forward. "I'm so ready to get out of this place and go back home."

Ochako gave a small laugh. "Aw, it's not that bad. Not that I don't want to go home too," she added hastily at their friend's expression. "But you have to admit, we had a lot of fun here in Gravity Falls."

"And we still have four days before the puppet show," Mina added. "Even if we do uncover a way to get home, we should finish that first."

"We did promise to help," Izuku agreed, ignoring Shouto's glare. "What kind of heroes would we be if we went back on a promise to help a group of little kids?"

"Heroes that found our way home," Shouto snarked, but left it at that. Izuku shook his head and opened up the laptop. The computer itself was bulky, and it definitely looked like something from a long time ago. A large sticker saying 'Property of F' was stuck across the top of the inside. Was the author named something that started with an 'F'?

Izuku pressed 'ON', and the screen lit up with a green glow, words and numbers appearing and running down the screen itself. Small green boxes lit up, one right after the other until the computer had fully loaded. Lines and spirals appeared, twisting around until they made four small circles on the corners, and a circle inside a triangle in the center. The top of the screen said 'Welcome'.

Ochako bounced around her seat in excitement. "It worked! We really are the Mystery Crew!"

"I say that once, and now apparently it's our catchphrase," Shouto complained. He had a small smile on his face, however, and Izuku knew he was just as excited as the rest of them.

Then the screen flashed red. "Uh! Unauthorized access, password needed!" Mina groaned. "The age old enemy of anyone who wants to snoop in another's stuff."

Shouto glared at the laptop. "Seriously? After all that, we're still not even in the computer yet?"

"It makes sense," Izuku reasoned. "This is the author we're talking about, and you saw how many traps and defense mechanisms he had in the bunker. It isn't that surprising that he'd use a passcode for his computer, where he might've hidden even more stuff."

"You've got a point there." Ochako hummed to herself for a moment, looking at the screen. "It's eight letters, right? What about password? That's eight letters, it could fit!" She turned the laptop towards herself and typed in her guess. Unfortunately nothing came out of it, as a beeping noise informed them that the guess was incorrect.

"Hey, it was a good guess!" Mina encouraged her, stepping on Shouto's foot before he could say anything.

"There's around seven million eight letter words, if I remember correctly," Izuku mused. "That's a lot of material to cover for four people, especially since we can only enter one guess at a time."

Mina looked at him with surprise. "How did you even know that?" Izuku flushed awkwardly.

"I-um, I read a bunch of the cryptology books that were in the library a few days ago. The author writes a lot of his notes in the journal in code, so I was looking up how to decipher them."

"What if the password is a code, and not a word at all?" Shouto said allowed. The four of them looked at each other in silence for a moment.

Ochako gave a helpless shrug. "...We should probably just start by trying words out anyways." The other three quickly agreed. _If it is a code,_ Izuku thought grimly, _we may never be able to crack it. There are just too many different options to try, and since all we know about the author is from what they wrote in the journals, the passcode could refer to something we've never even heard of before._

He shook his head. That didn't matter. As much as Izuku enjoyed it here, he needed to get home, to his mom and to All Might, and so that he could become the hero he always wanted to be.

"We should start typing then," Shouto said suddenly, grabbing the laptop and pulling it towards himself. "Let's start by trying out any eight letter words that pertain to the supernatural. The author is more likely to use words that come from his work."

"Smart thinking!" Ochako leaned over his shoulder. "What about…. Wondrous? Conjured? Darkness?"

Shouto typed all of them in, but each time, the laptop beeped. "We should probably go to the library. They're sure to have some books that could help us."

"Speaking of going places." Mina checked her watch. It was a cheap model, as the four had used some of their money from the photo contest to buy themselves things like watches, and had picked out the most affordable ones they could find. "It's almost nine, we need to head down to the beach to help with the puppet show."

"Ochako jumped out of her chair. "That's right! We need to go!"

"We _literally_ just started working on the laptop." Shouto reminded them, exasperation filling his voice.

But Mina already had a counter argument lined up. "And like Izuku said, there are literally millions of different eight letter words. A couple of days working on a project that will make some kids happy is nothing."

"Don't worry," Izuku tried to assure his friend. "Once the play is over, we'll get straight to work on the laptop, I promise! All of us want to go home, but if we panic over it, it won't lead us anywhere." He hoped that would convince Shouto.

Shouto hesitated for a few moments more, looking back and forth between them and the laptop. After a few tense seconds, he sighed and got to his feet, closing and picking up the laptop as he did so. He tucked the device under his arm. "Fine, I'll help. But I'm working on this every chance I get, even if I have to do it alone."

"It's a deal!" Izuku smiled, relieved. "Just don't push yourself too hard, okay? Like I said, we'll help you when the puppet show is all over."

"Hmm." Shouto pushed past him and walked out the door. Izuku winced as the other boy went. If only there was something he could say to convince Shouto that they all meant well! But when it came to the red-and-white haired boy, he came up empty on good ideas. He just didn't know enough about Shouto to have a real heart to heart with the other teen.

"Welp, you heard him. Let's go!" Mina jogged out the door and quickly caught up to Shouto, engaging him in a conversation about the two's most recent adventure. Izuku could see Shouto respond with a softness the other boy rarely showed.

Izuku and Ochako followed them. "It's nice that those two are getting along a lot better," Ochako commented. "I was kind of worried there for a while."

"Yeah, me too." Now if only Izuku could talk to him like that!

* * *

"Double time, everyone!" Miss Miller called out, walking between the different tables of teenagers and preteens working on puppets and sets. "We have four days left, so we have to make them count!"

Ochako outfitted her current puppet with its tiny jacket, which had been carefully made by Izuku. "Is it just me, or are there a lot less people here today than the days before?" She had noticed that when they first walked up to the group, how many tables where empty, especially when it came to those working on the sets.

"Oh, they're still helping!" Candy assured her. "They're just moving some of the set pieces over to where the show will take place. No big deal."

Izuku smiled. "That's a relief. I was worried people dropped out right before the show began, but I guess we're all good."

"Yeah. And if they had, a certain someone might have to actually work on the puppet show." Grenda looked pointedly over at the other end of the table. "I mean you, Shouto." Shouto didn't even dignify her words with a response, continuing to type. Grenda frowned, looking a little hurt. "At least stop with the beeping noise! It's getting on my nerves!"

"Please?" Izuku begged him. "You can work on it afterwards, just help us for now!"

Shouto looked as though he wanted to argue, but must've realized that they were all going to continue bugging him to help, because he said: "Fine. Just for now." The other two girls cheered, and Ochako couldn't help but laugh and cheer along with them.

She also couldn't help but notice how frazzled Shouto was looking. The sudden observation caught her by surprise, and she took a closer look at her friend. Sure enough, there were bags underneath his eyes, and his clothes were rumpled in ways they hadn't been before. Ochako felt a twinge of guilt; Shouto was obviously taking everything harder than the rest of them. How had she not noticed before?

_Once this puppet show is over, we'll all help as much as we can with the laptop_, she decided. But for now, she grabbed a puppet and tossed it to Shouto. "Here, can you put googly eyes on this one?"

"Yes," Shouto said flatly. "I can in fact put googly eyes on a sock puppet."

"Good! Then let's get this done!"

* * *

"Look, I appreciate the dedication to figuring out the password, I really do," Mina yawned from in her bed. "But none of us can get to sleep with that beeping noise." It was nighttime, and the only light in the room came from the full moon outside, and from the green screen of the laptop, which flashed red every few seconds as Shouto tried another eight letter passcode. Izuku buried himself in his sleeping bag, pressing the sides against his ears as he tried to sleep.

"Sorry about that." Shouto pulled on a sweatshirt jacket, picked up the laptop, as well as scraps of paper with different ideas for the password on them, and made his way out of the attic. "I'll work downstairs."

"You should get some sleep," Izuku suggested. "You stayed up all of the last three nights as well. That's not really good for you." After a moment, he added, "You can always work on the laptop more in the morning."

"Not when you three are making me work on puppets all day." Bitterness seemed to seep into Shouto's voice. "I said I'd work on this by myself if I needed to, and I will. Go back to sleep, I'm going downstairs."

Izuku watched him go. Should he say something? Convince him to stay somehow? But the door closed shut behind Shouto, and Izuku had said nothing that could change his friend's mind. He balled up the sleeping bag in his fists in frustration. Why was there nothing he could say or do to help Shouto? Was he really that useless?"

"Deku, I can hear you thinking from here," Ochako murmured, head half buried in her pillow. "Please go to sleep."

"Oh, s-sorry." Izuku rolled over and closed his eyes, but the lack of both beeping noises and Shouto shifting around next to him was deafening in and of itself.

* * *

Shouto crept downstairs to the kitchen, only to find Stan snoring in one of the chairs, his head face first down on the kitchen table. Shouto grimaced, knowing he'd never be able to concentrate with that amount of noise going on, even if he went to the living room. But it wasn't like he could go back upstairs, he'd just get told off by the other students again.

_The rooftop_. He hadn't been up there since that day with Wendy and the ghosts, but it was as good of a spot as any to work uninterrupted. Shouto went into the gift shop and pulled down the ladder. Tucking the papers and laptop under his arm, he climbed up to the roof and over the side, to where Wendy's icebox, chair, and umbrella were situated. He debated on sitting in the chair, but in the end decided to just sit on the edge of the roof, dangling his legs over the edge.

_Academic….Abstract….Bulletin….Equation….Nothing. Absolutely nothing._ Shouto groaned and ran a hand through his hair. Just another useless guess, like all the rest of them. He put another word in and got the same beeping noise he had with all the others. Shouto was starting to despise that noise.

He shouldn't be doing this alone. The other three students should be helping him. He wouldn't have to stay up all night long for a bunch of nights in a row if the others would just forget their stupid puppet project and help him! Here Shouto was, spending night after night worrying about getting home, and then working on the laptop that could send them there, while the other three people he was trapped with here making fools of themselves.

_And yet I've gotten nowhere. I really am useless without my quirk._ Shouto tried to shake the thought away and failed. He buried his head in his hands. Why could he never do anything right in this place?

He missed Fuyumi. How was she doing at the moment, all alone with their father in that damn house? It had been, what, two or so weeks since they first came to Gravity Falls? Shouto had been counting at the beginning, but with all the sleepless nights he had gone through, at some point he had lost track. Whatever the number was, it didn't change the fact that the only family member who had stuck with him through thick and thin was now at the mercy of their father, and it was all his fault. If she hadn't felt the need to stay for him, if he hadn't been careless and been caught by that portal villain, she wouldn't be in the position she was undoubtedly in now.

He had to get back to her, had to make sure she was okay. Shouto wanted his sister back, wanted his quirk back, wanted his _life_ back.

And he still couldn't figure out the damn password. Shouto unsuccessfully tried to stifle a yawn. "There has to be some sort of shortcut or clue," he muttered out loud. "But who would know about the author's secret codes?" Izuku? He would have said something at this point. But Shouto couldn't think of anyone else-

The breeze suddenly picked up, slamming the laptop shut and spinning the weather vane on top of the shack around and around. Shouto pulled the ends of his jacket closer together at the sudden chill, wishing he had thought to zipper up. He stood up to go on inside when something about the night sky changed, and Shouto's back was lit up with light.

He turned around to see a thin back line rolling over the side of the moon, before focusing directly on him. A chill ran through Shouto as the wind picked up speed, whipping his hair in the opposite direction of the strange moon.

Things got even stranger. Blue blocks of different sizes appeared from out of thin air, forming around the moon, which now looked much more like a strange slitted eye, into the shape of a triangle. A flash of light, and everything around Shouto lost its color as the triangle gained legs, arms, and a top hat, and went from light blue to bright yellow, as though it had sucked all the color from the world.

Then the voice. Scratchy and somewhat high pitched, with a distinctly alien feel to it.

"_I think I know a guy!"_ The triangle pointed at itself. "_Well well well, you're pretty persistent, aren't you, Pine Tree?"_ Shouto blinked. Didn't Trembly say something similar about pine trees?

"Who are you?" He managed to get out. "What do you want?"

"_Who am I? Oh, that's right!"_ The being almost seemed to laugh. "_This is the first time we've met in this world!"_ The being glided closer, and Shouto found himself inching away before he could stop it. "_The name's Bill Cipher. It's good to finally meet you, kiddo!_"

"Right, Shouto deadpanned, trying to hide the fact that Cipher sent all of his nerves tingling at once, in all the wrong ways. "It's nice to meet you too, I guess. Is there a reason why you wanted to talk to me?"

"_Straight to the point, I like that! You deserve a prize! Here, have a head that's always screaming."_ Cipher clapped his hands, and a blue tinged bodiless-head fell onto the roof, screeching at the top of its lungs. A startled yelp tore from Shouto's throat, as he instinctively moved away. He quickly regained his composure.

"_I'm just messing with you kiddo,"_ Cipher laughed. "_Let's get rid of this thing."_ The head began to peel itself away, layer by layer, until all that was left was bone, and even that dissolved. Shouto stared at the place it had just been, thoroughly unnerved.

He looked back up at Cipher. "What are you exactly?" He demanded of the triangle (and wasn't that a strange sentence?)

"_Oh, just your friendly interdimensional being, hoping to finally chat with another lost soul."_ Cipher's voice dipped at the 'fellow lost soul' part, as if implying something Shouto was just beginning to grasp. "_All the beings I've ever been able to contact before were from this dimension, which is boring! But you, you're special like me! I've been waiting for a chance to talk!"_

"You…." Shouto gaped, the full reality of Cipher's sentences hitting him all at once. "You're not from this world either."

"_Got it in one! Just What I expect from you!"_ Cipher leaned closer. "_It seems to me we've got opposite problems. For starters, I know everything there is to know about everything. Omnipotence is a blast! But I can't leave the mindverse, or interact with almost anything in the real world, so I'm separated from all my friends. And you, you're in the real world! You could go home, if you knew how! But you don't, so your just as stuck as me."_

"Looks like we've both got our issues then," Shouto agreed. It was so strange, meeting something from yet another world. Cipher was unlike anything he'd ever encountered before. That did make sense, after all, there must be worlds that were nothing like earth. But still… something about Cipher made Shouto uneasy.

"_Ain't that the truth! But the point is, I like you kid! And I think we could both help each other out. I give you the hint you're looking for for the laptop, and you give me a small favor in return. We'll both be on our way to seeing those we like again."_ Cipher held out his hand, and blue flames sprung out around it. "_What'dya say? Do we have a deal?"_

Shouto almost put his hand out. He wanted to get home, more than anything. He promised himself he'd find a way to not be useless. Cipher was offering him a way to get both of the things he wanted.

But something about Cipher set him off in all the wrong ways. Maybe it was unfair to Cipher, but Shouto couldn't muster enough trust to make the deal.

_The others promised they'd help with the laptop starting right after the play was over._ He thought back to the heartfelt conversation he'd had on the train. _Mina_ _promised she'd help. I don't need Cipher._

"Thanks, but no thanks," Shouto said. "I can figure this out on my own."

Cipher gave what must be his equivalent of a shrug. "_If you say so kid. But if you decide you do need help, just give me a call!"_

With a flash, Cipher was gone, and Shouto felt his head shooting upwards from its position on the laptop. Which was strange. Wasn't he standing just now?

He looked around. Color had returned to the skies, which were painted in all the colors of the dawn. The wind was soft and barely moved the weather vane at all, and, most importantly, Cipher was nowhere to be seen.

Shouto sighed, running his hand through his hair. "Just a dream then." Maybe. Didn't Cipher say he could only reach people through the mindverse, whatever that was? Maybe it meant through dreams? And why would it contact him and not any of the other displaced students?

_Because you're the only one who's actually trying to go home, the only one who cares enough,_ a small part of him said. Shouto didn't even try and push the thought away. He was tired, he hadn't slept for more than a couple hours in days, and he wanted to get home.

Maybe Cipher was right. Maybe he had to explore every option available to him.

* * *

Mina was sitting in the kitchen with Izuku, Ochako, and Stan when Shouto finally walked in, looking like he hadn't slept a wink yet again. While Mina was glad they were doing the play after all of their hard work, she was also glad today was the performance. Shouto seriously looked like he needed some help.

"Woah, bag check for Shouto's eyes!" Stan snickered, but it faded quickly into what looked almost to be concern. "You alright kid?"

"Fine." Shouto didn't even look at them, just grabbed one of those pit-sodas from the fridge and slumped down in his chair.

"You didn't go to sleep at all, did you?" Izuku demanded, looking extremely worried. "Shouto, you can't do that again, it's not good for you!"

"And you know just why I've been doing it," Shouto countered, glaring at Izuku with tired eyes. "So whose fault is it really?" Izuku flinched and shrunk back in his seat. Ochako looked at Shouto in shock.

"What was that for?" She demanded. "We told you we'd help, and we will! You don't need to be a jerk about it." Shouto ignored her, downing the rest of the cola, spiting out the pit into the trash, and striding out of the house.

"What's up with him?" Stan commented, raising an eyebrow at the angry teen.

"Shouto, wait up!" Mina jumped out of her seat and followed her friend out of the house. "Hang on!" She heard Izuku and Ochako following right behind her.

Shouto was just outside, trying out more eight letter words on the shack's porch. He didn't even turn around to acknowledge them. "Don't you have a puppet show to get to?" He spat his words out like they were venom in his mouth. Mina stopped in her tracks, cringing under the accusation those words held.

Ochako tried again. "Shouto, you haven't been acting like yourself lately. I know you want to get home, we all do! But you've been obsessing over it ever since the bunker, and it's not healthy." Her words were true, Mina realized. Shouto had been so calm when they had first arrived, cool and collected while the rest of them were freaking out over their loss of quirks and separation from their families. But while Mina and the others had adapted and figured out how to keep their cool, Shouto had unraveled more and more.

"We want to help!" Izuku added. "A-and we will! We promise! We want to get home just as much as you do. I miss my mom so much-"

"Really? I wouldn't have guessed. You don't act like it." Izuku looked as though he had been physically struck. For a moment, Shouto looked incredibly guilty. Then it was gone. An odd light shone in Shouto's eyes, one that hadn't been there before last night.

What could Mina do? She wanted to help him, she wanted to shake her friend and find out what was wrong with him. But what could she say? She wasn't the voice of reason in the group, that was Izuku. And she wasn't the nicest, that was Ochako. And Shouto had brushed off both of them.

She was closest to Shouto, she thought. Maybe he'd listen to her. But what if she said the wrong thing, and lost all of his trust?

An idea sprung in her mind, one she quickly latched onto. It could be the only way she could get him to listen. _Sorry Candy and Grenda, Miss Miller. Maybe I'm selfish, but I want to help my friend._

She turned to Ochako and Izuku. "Everyone's going to be gathering to put the finishing touches on the puppet show, and move it out to where it's going to be held. You two go on ahead and help, and I'll work with Shouto on the passcode."

All three of them looked at her like she had grown an extra head. "A-are you sure?" Izuku asked cautiously.

Mina tried for a smile. "Yup, I'm positive! Now go on! We'll see you later. The performance is at four, right?"

"Right," Ochako affirmed. "See you then." After another moment's hesitation, she and Izuku started off towards the beach.

Mina turned to Shouto, who was still looking like her like she said the sky was actually purple, and gave evidence for it. And also looking like he had no idea who she was, but Mina figured that was just the sleep deprivation. "Should we go upstairs?"

"...Yeah." Shouto lead the way back inside, and Mina followed him. Stan looked just as confused when they entered as he had when they had all left.

"You guys figure everything out?" He inquired. Shouto gave a short nod, and Mina flashed him an apologetic smile, as the two of them made their way up to one of the few empty rooms in the house.

Shouto popped open the laptop and stared at it blankly, the bags under his eyes more noticeable than ever before. Mina looked down at him for a moment, then sat down on the window seat next to him, picking up the sheet of words and leaning over to look at the screen.

"Hey, you want to get started on this thing?" She asked. He didn't respond, not even a twitch. "Or not, we don't have to. You want to take a nap or something instead?"

"I'm sorry," he whispered, voice barely loud enough to hear.

Mina leaned back in surprise. "O-oh! Don't worry about it, I'm sure Izuku knows you didn't actually mean it. If you just apologize at the puppet show, I'm sure he'll forgive you immediately, no sweat." Her mind flashed to that Bakugou guy, who had spent the first few days of UA screaming obscenities at the green haired boy, and how passively Izuku had taken it, even defending the guy. And Shouto didn't even mean it, so Mina was sure it would all be fine.

"Not just that," Shouto refuted, and Mina snapped back to attention. "Everything's been so tiring and stressful, and I don't know what to-" He paused, made a nasty face, and swallowed. "I don't know what to do. I don't know how to fix things. I'm _useless_."

"Hey, that's not true!" Mina grabbed Shouto's shoulders and turned him towards her. Inside she was shaken, was that really how he thought? "You're not useless! No way!"

"I can't do anything without my quirk!" Shouto snapped back. "I haven't been any help in any of our adventures. I appreciate you trying to make me feel better, but that doesn't change the facts."

"You're wrong!" Mina shook her head. It was true that Shouto hadn't been much help in the more serious of their adventures, but… "You helped figure out the first clue to finding Trembly, remember? I was going to burn the map." She let out a laugh. "And besides that, you've been the one to keep everyone in check, especially me, remember? Who knows how we'd have ended up without your caution."

"I-" Shouto broke off, voice cracking, looking at her through wide and tired eyes. "I don't know. I don't know what to do." He looked away. "Especially after what happened last night."

"Last night?" Mina asked. Shouto didn't answer, staring off into space again. "Shouto? What happened last night?" He finally looked back up at her.

"I-" He broke off, staring out the window. Mina followed his gaze to see Candy and Grenda out on the lawn, calling out what Mina was pretty sure was her name. She looked to Shouto, who motioned to the other girls. "You should probably go see what that's about."

"Are you sure?" Mina asked. Shouto hesitated, then nodded. Mina slowly stood up, looking back at her friend, who nodded as if to say he would be fine. And so Mina walked out the door.

* * *

Shouto watched Mina leave. A part of him wanted to call out and ask her to come back, to work on the laptop, to sort out the things that had been going on in his head almost from the day they came to Gravity Falls. He still couldn't believe he had actually admitted his thoughts to someone in the first place, it wasn't like him at all.

But he didn't. Mina had cared enough to actually try and help him out, to finally put the puppet show down for a bit and help him find a way to open the laptop, not just yell at him about needing to get more sleep, or whatever. (And the part of him that felt incredibly guilty about what he had yelled back could just _go away, thank you very much_.) The least he could do was not hold her back from going and talking to her friends.

Sighing, Shouto turned back to the list of passwords, ready to start typing in more words, and hopefully find the right one. Every attempt led to another one of the beeps he had grown so accustomed to over the past few days. In spite of himself, Shouto yawned.

Something blared, louder than the regular beeping noise, and the screen flash continually red. Shouto blinked the sleep out of his eyes and stared at it, doing a double take once he was aware enough to actually read the print on the screen.

"To many failed entries, data erase in five minutes? No no nonononono…." Shouto looked at the laptop in surprise and frustration, unsure of what to do, know knowing how to quench his slowly rising panic. The screen read that he had one try for the password left, and he had no idea where to start. "One more try, and I lose everything?"

Just as he said it, there was a familiar flash, and everything around him went grey. Cipher appeared in mid-air, holding out his palms, two flames adorning them. "_Well well well. You're in quite the predicament, aren't you Pine Tree?"_

"Cipher," Shouto breathed, unsure if he was more relieved or apprehensive than before. "Why'd you come back? I told you I could figure this thing out on my own."

"_Clearly,"_ Cipher said sarcastically. "_Don't forget, I have a stake in this too. I want to see my friends from my home dimension just like you. So how about I crack open that laptop for you, give you a peak of what's inside?"_

Shouto looked from Cipher to the laptop screen, which was already down a minute. He looked outside, to where Mina was chatting with Candy and Grenda. Was it just him, or was she stealing glances upstairs?

Slowly, he looked back to Cipher. "You said last night that you wanted a small favor in return, one that could help you get back to your own world. What is it that you want?"

"_Oh nothing big. Just a puppet." _Cipher scanned the room, and his slitted eye flickered towards the window. "_From what I've seen, you guys have plenty to spare."_

"Not really," Shouto denied. "They're not ours there for a show that's going to be put on for a bunch of kids. We can't actually trade them away. Besides, everyone worked really hard on those things." He looked back to Cipher. "And how does that help you get home?"

"_It's a lot of complicated steps, getting back to my dimension. A puppet is just one of the requirements. It may not matter much to you, but it'll help me greatly."_ Cipher said. "_Speaking of unimportance, we both know this show doesn't matter all that much. What's one silly show compared to you finding a way home? Just borrow one of Sparks' or Sunshine's. They've already gone to the show after all. It won't hurt them too much."_

Shouto assumed he meant Izuku and Ochako. "I can't do that, we're classmates. We're in this together."

"_Oh really? Then why have they deserted you at every possible opportunity this week? They say they'll help soon, but let's face it, kiddo. They'll just find something else to entertain them, and you'll all be back to square one."_

Shouto looked at the timer. Forty-five seconds, and the information on the laptop was lost forever. After all this time, he had worried while they had gone on adventures. He had spent many sleepless nights scared for his sister's safety, while they had slept easy, even though they had more parents and friends who cared about them and missed them than he did. _Why should you care about their stupid puppet show?_ That was right, he shouldn't. He shouldn't (He should, what was he _doing_?)

Shouto stole one last glance down at Mina. He wanted to ask her what he should do, tell her about Cipher, but there was ten seconds left on the clock, and he was out of time.

Shouto held out his hand. "It's a deal. You open up the laptop, and I'll give you a puppet. Just do it quick."

Cipher grabbed his hand, lighting their handshake up with flames. "_Now we're talking Pine Tree! Don't worry, it'll be fast."_ The room dimmed, and Cipher's voice dropped about four octaves, sending shivers down Shouto's spine. A feeling of being pulled forwards started in his hand, and spread throughout his body, like he was being yanked by some force, even though he wasn't moving. His eyesight blurred and faded. Then it was back, and he was somehow….outside of his own body?

And yet, his body moved all on its own, crazed laughter filling through the room. His body looked up at him, and instead of a blue eye and a gray eye, they were both yellow, and his pupils were slitted.

"Thanks for agreeing to be my puppet, kiddo!" Cipher crowed. "Like I said, I'll make it quick." And with that, Cipher picked up the laptop and smashed it to the ground, cackling all the while.

"_That….what just-"_ Shouto stared open mouthed and almost uncomprehending at the scene before him. He looked down at himself, to find that he was completely transparent, almost like a ghost. And the laptop… "_Cipher! You said you'd help me!_"

"I told you I'd crack that laptop open, and boy did I keep my promise!" Cipher grinned, and it looked so wrong on his face (oh god that was his face, something else was using his body) that it made Shouto's non-existent insides turn over. Cipher walked around the room, strolling over to the mirror to examine his prize. "It's been so long since I inhabited a human body, I almost forgot what it felt like." He slapped his face, over and over again. "Hah! Pain is hilarious! And two eyes? This thing is deluxe!" Shouto cringed.

"_What are you doing?"_ He snapped at the Cipher. "_Why are you hurting the body you're in? It doesn't make any sense!"_

"I told you, it's hilarious! Geeze Pine Tree, I thought you were smarter than that." Cipher snarked. "I already told you, I need to be in the real world to kickstart my plans. And if I need to put some helpless, useless kid in the mindscape, where no one can see, hear, or touch him, than it's really no big loss." Cipher grinned. "Destroying that laptop was a cinch. Now to destroy that journal. Race you to the bottom of the stairs!" And with that, Cipher positioned Shouto's body at the edge of the stairs and fell backwards, hitting almost every step on the way down. Shouto flinched at each thump and dove downwards, slipping through the ceiling.

Cipher had gone into the kitchen, and was rummaging through the drawers. "So where did Sparks keep that journal, hmm?" He pulled out his arm, and to Shouto's horror, there were forks digging into his skin. "Oh, that's right! He's gone to the puppet show with it! Naturally, kid never leaves it anywhere. Looks like I'm off then!"

"_H-hey, wait-"_ But Cipher was hurrying to pull out all of the forks, and slipping on Shouto's sweatshirt jacket, so that they wouldn't be visible. Then he headed outside to where Mina was. Filled with desperation, horror, and guilt, Shouto followed him.

* * *

Mina winced as she tried to figure out a way to get out of the situation she had found herself in. "Listen guys, I want to help, I really do! But I've got something really important I need to get back to at the moment. Otherwise I would totally help."

"Mina, please!" Candy begged. "We need all hands on deck, the show won't work otherwise! We're almost done, we just need your help to finish in time."

"I know, but…." Mina thought over what Grenda and Candy had just described. Should she help her new friends with something they'd worked so hard on, or help Shouto with the laptop? She knew her answer, she had already promised Shouto, after all, but she felt horrible saying no.

Before she could decline, the porch door swung open, and Shouto walked out, wearing his sweatshirt jacket. Mina perked up and ran over to him.

"Shouto, I'm sorry for the wait! I promise I'll help, I just-"

"Don't worry about it!" Mina stopped cold in her tracks, and looked at Shouto's wide smile. Something in the back of her mind told her to run as far as possible, but she shook it away. She wondered just how much sleep Shouto really needed. "I'm going to come with you."

"Really! Wow, you're a trooper!" Grenda slapped Shouto on the back, who nearly fell forward, before laughing it off. "Guess you really pulled through in the end. "Come on, let's head to the clearing, everything's already there."

Mina walked just behind Candy and Grenda as they chatted, keeping an eye on Shouto as he strolled next to her. There was something….wrong about it, something that made all her hair stand up on end.

She nudged him softly. "Hey Shouto, you good?"

"I'm excellent, thank you for asking!" He beamed back at her, the shadows under his eyes darker than ever.

"Right. Sure." She frowned. What was going on? "You said something happened last night. What was it?"

"Nothing of importance," he assured her, and Mina knew there was something terribly wrong.

* * *

Izuku looked up from where he was helping push some of the set walls back up after they had fallen, and spotted Mina and Shouto making their way through the different sets. He shared a surprised look with Ochako.

"I didn't think she'd get him to come," he said quietly. Ochako shrugged.

"Guess they got closer than we thought. "I'm gonna go over and talk to them." Izuku looked back at the set he was propping up and nodded so that she knew he had heard her. He should probably go too. But would Shouto want to talk to him? Everything Izuku did around him just seemed to make their relationship worse.

Ochako returned sometime later, looking somewhat stunned. "Not only did he come of his own volition," she told Izuku, "But he agreed to be the reverend in the marriage scene!"

"Seriously?" Izuku asked. "Are we sure that's really Shouto?"

"I mean, the shapeshifter is safely locked away, so I don't see who else it could be." Ochako sat back down next to him, looking just as stunned as Izuku felt over that news. What had happened that would change Shouto's mind so drastically?

Izuku had a really bad feeling about it.

* * *

All to soon, four o'clock came along. Everyone was buzzing around, with Miss Miller directing everyone to their places as the little kids came strolling in. Mina took her place beneath the stage and held up her puppet, singing along with everyone else.

Inside though, her mind was far from the play. Something had happened to Shouto, something that had to do with the night before. Something that drastically changed the way he acted, the way he talked, made it seem almost as though he wasn't really Shouto….

Mina shook her head. The shapeshifter was locked away, and besides, she had only been gone for, like, five minutes! What could've snatched the real Shouto away during that time? Was she just overthinking things?

The children laughed and clapped along to the performance, and soon intermission was called. Relieved, Mina slipped out from under the stage and headed towards the trees, where she saw Izuku and Ochako standing.

"Hey Mina!" Ochako smiled at her, and Izuku gave her a little wave. "What happened earlier today?"

"What do you mean?" Mina asked, perplexed.

"With Shouto," Ochako elaborated. "You went to go help him with the laptop, and now he's acting all strange and cheery."

"Not I'm not!" Shouto snapped. _Wait, hang on. What?_ The three of them spun around, not to see Shouto, but to see one of the puppets floating in the air.

Izuku gaped at it. "Did you just talk? With Shouto's voice?"

"I am Shouto!" The puppet hissed back. He turned towards Mina. "That was what I was trying to tell you, about last night. This triangle thing named Cipher, who's from another dimension. When Mina was gone, he tricked me and stole my body."

"That's why you were acting so strange," Mina realized. "It wasn't you." It made sense, hadn't she just been thinking about how it was almost like it wasn't really Shouto? She had been more on the mark than she knew.

"You said he's from another dimension?" Izuku clarified, still looking wide-eyed.

"At first I thought he wanted to go home, just like us," Shouto said softly. "But now I'm starting to- starting to think I was wrong. I don't know what he wants. I don't know-" Shouto's voice cracked and broke off.

Maybe another time Mina might have joked about how funny he looked as a puppet. She might have pointed out that they had told Shouto not to stay up so late all the time, told him not to obsess over going home, and the fact that he had done so anyways had been a contributing factor to the situation he was in now. But after seeing Shouto act so broken earlier, seeing him now in this sorry state, Mina couldn't bring herself to say a word.

Besides, for all that Shouto's accusations that morning were due to him being so sleep deprived he could barely think straight, there was more than a grain of truth to them. If Mina hadn't been so obsessed with finishing the puppet show, if she hadn't brushed off all of Shouto's concerns, they wouldn't have been in this mess now.

So Mina gave Shouto an encouraging smile. "Don't worry, we'll help you out. Is there something this Cipher guy is looking for? If there's something or somewhere he's trying to get to, we can stop him."

"That's right," Ochako agreed. "We've got your back."

"Cipher won't know what hit him," Izuku promised.

Shouto stared at them for a long time, and without being able to see his facial expressions, Mina could only guess what he was thinking. Finally, he said "Cipher's after the journal, the one Izuku has. He destroyed the laptop, and now he wants to destroy that as well."

Izuku hugged the jacket that contained the journal closer to his chest, wide-eyed and worried. "We can't let him do that! It could be our only way home!" He paused, looking deep in thought. "Okay, okay. Cipher knows that I have it, right? So what if Mina takes the journal and runs somewhere else with it? Cipher will probably come over to me and ask if he can borrow the journal, and Ochako and I can confront him then."

Mina smiled. "Sounds like a plan. Don't worry, he won't get his hands on it." Izuku handed her the journal, and she tucked it under her arm. _Now, where to go?_

The cliff above the clearing, maybe? That way she could see what was going on, and go back down and help if she needed to. With that decided, Mina ran up the path that led to the top of the cliff. She wondered if Shouto was following her.

Bursting out of the trees, Mina took a moment to catch her breath, and make sure the journal was still okay. It was a pretty amazing view from up there, showing off the beauty of the entire valley. Mina walked to the edge and peered down. The puppet show looked so tiny from where she was standing.

She decided to look through the journal. "There has to be something in here that can help Shouto get his body back," she muttered.

Then she felt something shove into her back. For one terrifying moment, she was dangling over the edge of the cliff, looking straight down at the valley below. Then Mina was over the edge, stomach jumping into her throat as she lost her balance-

And stopped, looking straight downwards, foot just touching the edge of the cliff. A bright blue glow surrounded her. Mina felt relief flood through her body as she felt herself being turned around, ready to thank Ochako.

But it wasn't Ochako that had stopped her fall. There, in the reverend outfit, was Cipher, smiling with Shouto's face, smirking down at her with Shouto's eyes, which were now slitted and yellow. How had she not noticed that before? His hand was wreathed in a blue glow, the same glow that was keeping her from falling.

"Cipher Shouto," Mina breathed. "Chouto."

"You look to be in a pretty bad position there, don't 'cha?" Cipher laughed, the grin across Shouto's face looking more out of place by the second, more and more like a smile a villain would wear. "How about I help you out there? You give me the journal, and I won't let you fall to your death! Sounds fair to me!"

Mina hovered over the edge, unsure of what to do. She had no doubt Cipher would make good on his promise and drop her if she didn't give him the journal. She also knew if she gave him the journal, not only would they lose their only lead on getting home, but Shouto might never get his body back, and Cipher might just try to kill them again later.

_When you put it that way, there's really no other option, is there?_ A hasty plan formed in her mind. Tentatively, she held the journal out in front of her.

"Now that's more like it!" Cipher said. "After all, who would risk their life for some dumb stranger?"

His hands gripped the other end of the journal, and Mina smiled. "A hero would. And that's what I am!" She reached into her pocket and pulled out the flare she had been keeping on her since the bunker. Then she tugged as hard as she could, pushing her feet off the edge of the cliff. Cipher, startled, lost his hold on the magic keeping Mina floating, and they tumbled off the edge of the cliff together.

* * *

Shouto could only watch in horror as Mina fell, quickly flying towards the ground. He dove down after her, watching her fight to keep the journal away from Cipher on the way down, but there was nothing he could do to help.

She was in this position because of him. The only person he could consider calling a friend was in grave danger because of his stupid actions. The realization made him want to puke, if he had still been in his body. This was all his fault, and now Mina was going to die because of him-

Just before they hit the ground near the stage, a light blue glow surrounded Cipher and Mina, softer than the kind Cipher had used. Shouto looked over to see Ochako clutching her amulet in one of her hands, looking panicked. So that must've been why Mina fired the flare, to get their attention. Shouto let out a sigh of relief.

Mina wasted no time in tackling Cipher. "Get out of my friend's body, you dumb triangle!" The two rolled across the forest ground. Shouto might've been bothered by the fact that she was now punching his body right in the face, if not for her words.

She really thought of him as a friend? After how he had acted the whole time they had been stuck in this town?

Cipher lashed out with blue flames, causing Mina to jump back. He ran towards her, determined to take the journal, but was intercepted by Izuku, who tackled him from the side. "That's right!" Izuku said, pinning Cipher down. "We won't let you hurt our friend any longer!"

Cipher snarled, throwing Izuku off and reaching for the journal with his powers, blue flames covering Shout's hand. But before it could take effect, Ochako snatched the journal away with her own blue magic. The brown haired girl glared at Cipher.

"You're not getting this thing. Not now, not ever!" Cipher lunged towards her, but she sent the journal flying towards Izuku, who caught it and passed it to Mina. "And if you were looking for a good body to steal, you might've picked one that wasn't running on now sleep and little food."

Sure enough, Cipher was slowing down, looking more and more haggard. "No!" He protested, falling to his knees. "No no no! I'm a being of pure energy with no weaknesses!"

"Not in a human body, you aren't," Mina snarked, running over and slamming Cipher to the ground.

That seemed to be as much as the triangle could take. Everything lost its color again, and Cipher went flying out of Shouto's body with a panicked shout. Not wasting any time, Shouto dove right in.

For a moment, everything seemed perfect. He was finally back in his body, and Cipher was gone. Then all of the days injuries, as well as the exasution from night after night with no sleep, all caught up to him. Everything in his body screamed in pain at once, and he could barely open his eyes.

He could hear the other students (his friends?) gathering around him. "Shouto!" Izuku called out. "A-are you okay? Is it you in there?"

Shouto let out a groan and opened his eyes, letting the others see that they were his and not Ciphers. Gasps surrounded him, and he found himself hauled to his feet by gentle hands.

Everything felt wrong, as though he shouldn't be in his body at all, as though it wasn't even his anymore. He had to remember to breath.

Then he was crushed by a hug. "You're back!" Mina called out joyously, nearly breaking his bones all over again. Shouto's body moaned in pain.

"Mina, please…." he managed to get out. Mina quickly let go with an embarrassed smile.

"Sorry about that," she said. Shouto tried for a smile, and even though it felt awkward as hell, Mina looked relieved.

Izuku glanced towards the stage, where the play was still going on. No one seemed to have noticed them yet. "We should, um. Tell them they'll need to find a new reverend." Shouto grimaced.

"Maybe one of you could-" Ochako cut him off.

"No way Shouto. We're taking you home, getting you cleaned up." She and Izuku supported both sides of him as they walked back to the shack, Mina in front of him smiling and trying the keep his spirits up the whole way back. Something warm pricked behind Shouto's eyes, but no tears fell.

After what seemed like forever, they finally reached the shack. Shouto felt like he could collapse on the spot, from both soreness and possibly blood loss from all the stab wounds on his arms. Despite his best efforts, is eyes started to close.

"Don't worry," he heard Izuku say. "Just rest easy. We've got you."

Shouto let his friends led him back into the shack.


	9. Aftermath

**Thank you all so much for your wonderful reviews!**

**Sorry this is so late! I was debating and rewriting this chapter a lot, and I'm still not completely satisfied with it. Still, I think it's decent enough to publish. I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

_He was back on the cliffside. The wind whipped through his hair, pressing against his back. Mina was there, hovering off the edge, with only his power keeping her from falling to her death._

_Not that him keeping her afloat mattered much. Not when he was the reason she was in the position in the first place._

_Shouto could feel the smile on his face, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't seem to get rid of if. A part of him recognized that he must be dreaming. After all, he hadn't been inside his body when Cipher was threatening Mina, but watching from the sidelines, unable to help. Still, the irrational part of his brain had him in a tight grip, and all he could do was watch helplessly as the scene played out._

"_You're in a pretty bad position there, aren't 'cha?" Cipher cackled, using Shouto's mouth, looking at Mina through Shouto's eyes. "How 'bout I help you out there? You give me the journal, and I won't let you fall to your death! Sounds fair to me!" _

_Shouto wanted to scream. He wanted to reach out and help Mina, to stop Cipher from pulling off his intended deeds. But he couldn't do anything. _

_He wasn't a hero. He was useless, more than useless. Mina was going to die, and it would be all his fault. Because he couldn't let go of his drive to go home, let it morph into an obsession so bad he took an obviously shady deal with some obviously shady being. He was pathetic._

_Mina looked torn, unsure of what to do. Shouto didn't blame her for that, couldn't blame her for that. It wasn't something silly or replaceable on the line, it was her life. It made sense that she would be conflicted. _

_She handed the journal to him, and Cipher laughed aloud. "Now that's more like it!" The thing said. "After all, who would risk their life for some stranger?" His hands, Shouto's hands (were they even Shouto's anymore?) gripped the other end of the journal._

_Mina smiled. "A hero would. And that's what I am!" She pushed off the edge of the cliff and pulled forward._

_Logically, Shouto knew how it all went down. In reality, Mina had fired the flare first, to alert Ochako to her presence, so the other girl could catch her. She had managed to pull Cipher off the cliff, and keep him off her until they reached the ground, where she and his other friends (friends, he had friends, they actually wanted to be his friends after everything!) Kept the journal away from Cipher until his body collapsed from exhaustion, Cipher was kicked out, and Shouto was able to return to himself._

_Here, in his dream, Mina didn't fire the flare. When she pulled, Cipher got over his shock quickly enough that he was able to yank the journal away from her. With a push of blue power, Mina went flying off the cliff, by herself, with no one to catch her. _

_Cipher watched her fall to her death with a laugh and a smile. Shouto watched her fall to her death with a laugh and a smile. There was nothing he could do, no way to save her, and now his arrogance and narrow-mindedness had killed his first friend._

_It was all his fault, and Shouto wanted to scream and cry, but he couldn't. He was trapped in his own body, with Cipher firmly in control, and all he could do was smile and laugh as Mina fell, as she hit the ground-_

Shouto jerked upwards with a strangled gasp. Panic took over as he spun around the room, unable to recognize where he was, that he wasn't of the cliff anymore. His heart pounded in his chest, blocking out any other sounds. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't _breathe_.

There was a hand on his shoulder. Shouto automatically flinched away from it, rejecting the foreign touch. The hand quickly withdrew, but its owner stepped into his line of sight.

Green hair and eyes. Freckles. Worried expression. Shouto tried to focus on his friend's face, his heartbeat growing softer in his ears as his vision became clearer. He closed his eyes and took deep breaths, trying to steady his racing nerves.

The back of his shirt was damp with sweat. He was going to have to wash that. And change the bandages on his arms, the deep cuts where Cipher had experimented with silverware still stung. And ached. At the same time. And then there were the bruises Cipher had gained from being hit and tackled by his friends, the sharp pains from his body being hurled down the stairs. All and all, Shouto felt disgusting.

Once his breathing had mostly evened out, Shouto opened his eyes to meet Izuku's concerned gaze. He opened his mouth, and then closed it, unsure of what to say.

He had mostly ignored Izuku this whole time, being dismissive whenever he acknowledged him. Yesterday he insinuated that Izuku didn't care about his mom, didn't miss her, when it was obvious he did. He couldn't even blame Cipher for that, it was all him.

He wondered if Izuku disliked him for that. He wouldn't blame him in the slightest.

"Are you alright?" Izuku asked softly. Shouto simply looked at him, unsure of how to respond. He wasn't, not in the slightest, but the last thing the others needed was to deal with more of his problems. Izuku seemed to come to his own conclusion, and shook his head. "Of course not. Who would be, after yesterday? I wouldn't be okay if it were me." He coughed awkwardly. "Were you having a bad dream? You were crying out in your sleep."

"...Yeah," Shouto admitted. "Sorry if I woke you."

Izuku frantically waved his hands in front of his face. "O-oh, it's no trouble at all! I couldn't sleep much anyways, so you don't have to worry about it." He offered a small smile, which Shouto tried to return. That seemed to encourage Izuku. "It's around four in the morning- we could go downstairs and get a snack before going back to bed?"

"Okay." Shouto wished he could do more than give one word answers and short sentences, but it was as though his throat had closed up, only wide enough to admit the shortest of responses. Still, he let Izuku help him to his feet, trying to ignore his arms and back crying out in protest.

They made their way to the kitchen. Izuku pulled out two pit-sodas, a drink both of them had discovered that they enjoyed, and offered one to him. Shouto gave a quick thanks and reached for the drink.

(Cipher had poured that stuff in his _eyes_.)

Suddenly Shouto wasn't so thirsty anymore. The pit-soda looked about as appetizing as throw up, which is what Shouto was half certain he would do if he drank the stuff.

"No thanks," he said. "Sorry." Izuku didn't ask why, just put the soda back in the fridge and poured some water for him, which Shouto took gratefully. The two of them sipped their drinks in silence.

Thumping from the living room alerted them to someone else's presence. Sure enough, Stan stepped into the kitchen, looking as though he hadn't gotten a wink of sleep. He rubbed his eyes and stared at them blankly.

"Mind getting me one of those?" He nodded towards Izuku's soda, who shot upwards and took another can out of the fridge, silently handing it to Stan. The older man slumped down in one of the free seats, taking a long slurp.

"Ah, that hit the spot. Nothin' like Soda after a long night." He looked at the two of them, eyes hovering over Shouto's bandages. "You still haven't told me how that happened."

Stan had been home yesterday when the four of them reached the Shack. After the initial shock, he hadn't even questioned why Shouto's arms were bloodied up, or why the four of them all seemed to be in varying degrees of shock. He had just helped them wrap Shouto's bandages and stayed out of their business.

"You didn't really seem like you wanted to know," Shouto offered quietly.

Stan huffed, looking slightly annoyed. "Believe it or not kid, when some teenagers show up at my house with major injuries, especially when they happen to be staying at my house in the first place, I do give a damn."

"Really?" Izuku blurted out. Shouto didn't blame him.

"Really." Stan seemed more amused than anything at that. "Don't go around telling everyone that though. I have a reputation to uphold."

"We'll keep that in mind," Shouto assured him. He had never really trusted Stan, but maybe the man was more trustworthy than he acted. (At least he hadn't almost gotten his friend killed.) "We were looking for a way home. Things went wrong."

"Right," Stan drawled. "And the bloody silverware in my cabinets have something to do with getting home?" Shouto stiffened, involuntarily clutching his arms. Izuku's eyes widened. "Geez kids. I won't pry, as long as you try to not mess up the things I eat with again. But maybe tell someone about this stuff. I dunno, might help."

Izuku looked at him, as if asking if Shouto thought that idea was okay. And while Shouto was hesitant about letting even more people know how much of a screw up he was, it would be good for people like Soos and Wendy, who had helped them on their adventures, to know about the danger Cipher could pose if they weren't careful.

"I think we'll do that," he said. Izuku smiled in relief. Shouto continued, more for his friend's benefit than Stan's. "I don't think I can talk about it just yet, but there are people who should know."

There were other things he wanted to tell Izuku, Mina, and Ochako, things he thought they deserved to know at this point. But that could come later. Shouto could feel his eyes drooping once again, and wanted to get back to sleep.

Hopefully he wouldn't have any more dreams tonight.

* * *

"I heard from Grenda and Candy," Ochako offered, as the Mystery Crew and Soos spread out in the living room. "They were disappointed when I told them we needed to leave, and worried when I said Shouto had gotten injured-" which was their decided upon excuse as to why Shouto's arms were now covered in bandages- "But things at the puppet show pretty much went off without a hitch."

Not that Ochako could find it in herself to care much about that show now, not when them focusing on it like that had temporarily cost Shouto his body, and almost cost Mina her life. Ochako felt like the worst person in the world. She had seen Shouto getting more and more frustrated, known something was wrong with him before Cipher even came into the picture, and yet hadn't done anything to stop the demon-thing from taking over her friend, even if just for a little bit. How could she call herself a hero after this?

Especially after that note she had found. Just thinking about it chilled her to the bone.

"At least there's that," Soos offered. "Cheer up dudes. Now that we know about this Cipher guy, we'll be ready for him if he shows up again. No one's gonna fall for his tricks anymore."

"I ah, actually found him in the journal, I think." Izuku flipped the pages on the journal, turning to one that was covered in scribbles, as well as what looked suspiciously like blood. "I don't know for sure if this is the same Cipher or not, but it looks like the author had a bad run in with him as well."

Shouto peered over Izuku's side, face darkening at the page. "That's him alright." Mina put a reassuring hand on his back, and Shouto took a steadying breath. "The author calls him 'the most dangerous being he's ever encountered' in this."

"He also says 'I must hide the journal before _he_ finds it," Izuku mused. "Perhaps he was referring to Cipher in that?"

"It would make sense," Shouto agreed uneasily. "Cipher wanted that journal really bad."

They decided to leave the conversation with that solemn train of thought, and spent the rest of the afternoon playing all sorts of different card games. Grenda and Candy stopped by at one point, joining in on the game and conversation and worrying over Shouto's arms. He hurriedly assured them that he was fine.

It was late afternoon when they decided to pack everything up and head inside. Ochako hung back, clutching the note in her hand. It was all over now, and Cipher was gone. The words he left couldn't hurt them anymore. Even so, they sent a wave of fear down her spine whenever she thought about what was on the page.

"Ochako?" Mina seemed to have noticed her hesitation, hanging back herself. "What is it? Everything okay?"

While a part of her didn't want anyone else to have to see the note, Ochako realized it would be better if she could get it off her chest, at least a little bit. Having decided, she lifted up the note for Mina to read. The other girl took it curiously.

"This was in the Mystery Shack," She explained quietly, as though saying it aloud would make it true, would make it more threatening. Mina's eyes widened in horror as she read the note. The pink girl stifled a gasp, before looked back up at Ochako.

"This really says what I think it says," Mina breathed. Ochako nodded gravely.

"We can't tell him," she said. Mina looked personally offended, the note crumpling in her fist.

"Why not?" She took a step forward, clearly passionate about not keeping this particular secret. "Cipher wrote this! He was going to- going to throw Shouto's body off the water tower! Then he was going to try and do the same to us! How can we just not tell him about this?"

"Have you seen him today?" Ochako countered. "He already feels horrible about the whole thing. I don't want to put this on his conscience as well. Maybe I'm not as good at telling what other people need as Izuku is, but I think this would just hurt him even more."

Mina seemed completely torn, looking from the scrunched up note, to Ochako, to Shouto and Izuku disappearing into the shack, and back to her. Finally, she sighed in defeat. "Yeah, you're probably right. I just hate keeping secrets like this."

"Me too," Ochako admitted. "I just don't want to make things even worse." She had already done enough harm, she didn't want to screw things up even more.

"Yeah." Mina held up the note. "What should we do with this thing then?" The two of them stood in silence for a moment, thinking.

"Stan's probably got a lighter somewhere in the house," Ochako suggested. "We could burn it."

"That sounds like a great idea. I'll go get it." Mina dashed inside the shack. Ochako waited for a few minutes before Mina returned, carrying what Ochako presumed was a lighter. She handed it to Ochako.

"Want to do the honors?" Ochako nodded, before flicking the lighter, and pressing the flame to the piece of paper that reminded them far too much of the horrible event that had occurred yesterday.

Watching the flames consume Cipher's words was far more satisfying than it probably should've been.

* * *

"I've been thinking." Mina drummed her fingers on the table. Stan had given them a day off of work, and the four of them were eating lunch together at the shack. Mina couldn't help but notice that, unlike the previous days, Shouto wasn't touching the pit-soda. "That laptop was our only lead, and now it's totally destroyed."

"Sorry about that." Shouto looked away from all of them, eyes clouded. Mina hastily backtracked.

"Oh we don't blame you for that, not at all! This wouldn't have happened if we'd all agreed to help you work out the passcode when we should've. He looked about to argue, so Mina pressed on. "Anyways, I was thinking. We got the laptop from the bunker, right? What if we went back down, looked for other clues as to how to get home."

"I dunno." Ochako looked hesitant. "We almost died last time we went down there. I mean, we seriously came close a bunch of different times."

"The shapeshifter is locked away," Izuku argued. "If there are any more dangers down there, we can handle them. Besides, heroes risk their lives every day to help others! We can't just stop trying to get home just because it's dangerous."

"What's the point if we die before we even make it home?" Ochako shot back. "Deku, normally I agree with you, but I for one am tired of almost dying every single day. Maybe when we're actual pro heroes we'll be used tp it, but for now we're just kids. We just started UA, for pete's sake! We're not anywhere close to being heroes yet. Can't we just wait for the pros to come and find us?"

"It's been almost a month," Mina pointed out, her voice almost shaking as she did so. She'd been having the same thought for days now, and it chilled her every time. Still, she knew she was going to have to voice it at some point, and now seemed as good a time as ever. "We don't know if the pros are coming for us."

"They will!" Izuku burst out, eyes flashing indignantly. "Of course they will! The heroes would never leave some kids trapped in another world like this! _All Might_ wouldn't leave us trapped in a world like this, and he's our teacher! He knows us!"

"I'm not saying they wouldn't come on purpose," Mina said. "But they might not have any way of getting here. If that portal guy escaped the USJ, they'd have to track him down first, and make sure he holds the portal open long enough for them to get us and get back to our own world. And what if the villain can't send them here? What if it's a one way trip? We need to find a way back ourselves."

Izuku was tearing up - _oh no, was he about to cry? Had Mina made him cry?_ \- And Ochako looked very much like she wanted to argue some more. Mina geared herself up to defend her points.

"Can we not?" They all turned to look at Shouto, who looked - for lack of a better word - tired. Thankfully not the angry, far beyond exhaustion type of tired he had been, but tired all the same. "I tried so hard to get back home, and look where that got me." He raised his bandaged arms.

They all hastened to reassure him. "That's not your fault-"

"If we had been-"

"We should have-"

Shouto shook his head. "Thanks. But this was on me. Don't blame yourself for my mistake. I should've known better than to make that deal."

"You were absolutely exhausted," Izuku pointed out. "You weren't thinking straight."

"I wouldn't have been so tired if I hadn't been so consumed by my need to get home," Shouto said. "Look, what I'm saying is that we could keep throwing ourselves at every little possibility, but there's a much greater chance we're going to find something terrible, deadly, or worse on the other side than there is that we find a way home." He paused, taking a deep breath. "I would know better than anyone."

The rest of them were stunned into silence, unable to come up with anything. Shouto continued. "I think we need to rest and regain our strength, learn more about this world. Figure out just what we're dealing with before running headfirst into things again."

"That sounds like a smart idea," Ochako voiced quietly. "I agree with Shouto."

"...It makes sense," Izuku admitted, although he didn't sound to happy about it. "We could all use a break, go try and regather our thoughts. If we're going to find a way home, we need to start thinking smarter, understanding more about Gravity Falls."

Mina could tell she was outnumbered. "Alright then. I'm okay with that plan as well."

And just like that, the tension that had steadily been building between the four of them dissipated, and the Mystery Crew was back in action.

* * *

"Hey Shou," Wendy leaned over the counter of the gift store, eyes lingering on the bandages peeking out underneath the kid's jacket. Soos and Izuku had told her what had happened the other day, with the mysterious Cipher, but a part of her still couldn't wrap her head around it. The way it was told, it seemed to unreal to be true, until Shouto walked into the shack from two days off of work covered in bruises and bandages.

Shouto looked up in surprise, pointing to himself. The other teens looked curious as well. "Yeah, you," Wendy clarified. "If you don't want me to use a nickname-"

"No, it's fine," Shouto assured her. "It was just startled is all." He walked over. "What is it?"

"I was wondering how much you knew about self defense, as well as hand-to-hand combat," Wendy said. Shouto looked curious.

"I know some. I'm nowhere near the best at it though." He looked away, as if embarrassed. "I can dodge very well, I guess."

"That's good." Wendy smiled. "I can teach you a lot more, if you'd like."

Wendy had grown up in an extremely interesting family. Not only had her had forced her to participate in lumberjack games as a kid, but instead of Christmas, the Corduroys had apocalypse training. One of the other things her dad signed her up for, and one that she was particularly proud of, was self-defense and martial arts. It was the best stress reliever she had, and while she may not have been the best in math or English, she was talented enough in her hobby that she was reasonably certain she could incapacitate and three hundred pound muscled man.

Shouto seemed to be having a particularly rough time, and if Wendy had to guess, was feeling extremely vulnerable at the moment. Even if learning how to fight didn't work against weird demon things in a dreamworld, it would help him regain some of his confidence.

"Don't worry," she assured him. "I'm kind of one of the best in the state. I know what I'm doing."

"I'd-" he cut himself off, lost in thought. Then: "I'd like that a lot. Thank you."

"Is this Shouto exclusive?" Ochako asked. "Learning how to fight like that sounds really cool!"

"It shouldn't be exclusive," Shouto said. "I don't want it to be."

"Then sure, Ochako can join too." It was the least Wendy could do, after she and Izuku had helped save Wendy and her friends in that convenience store. Plus, Ochako seemed upbeat and eager to learn. Wendy was excited to teach them.

"We can start after work," She told them. "We'll just be going over the basics for now, but that's more important than the fancy stuff."

Ochako grinned. "We're ready to put in the work!"

* * *

They were all curled up in their bedroom, three days after the incident with Cipher. Izuku studied all the pages the author had on the being, including everything he had written in invisible ink. They needed to know what the thing's weaknesses were, and if it was the type of creature that would come back and try to hurt them again. So far there wasn't much, just a lot of desperate ramblings, although that was pretty telling as well.

Mina yawned loudly. "We should all probably turn in soon." Izuku nodded at her words and flicked off his new black light, a bigger one so that he could both see the whole page, and write with his pen at the same time.

"Hang on," Shouto said. "There's something I want to tell you guys." The other three looked up at him curiously. "Something I think you should know."

"Go ahead, we're listening," Mina encouraged him. Shouto looked at his hands, before starting his tale.

"We were talking yesterday, about whether the pros could or would come and find us. I'm not so sure there is a way for them to get us back. After all, my old man would do absolutely anything to get me back to him." Shouto chuckled bitterly. "That's not actually a good thing."

"What do you mean?" Ochako asked hesitantly. Izuku shared the feeling. Something about the way Shouto had worded it set his 'danger' nerves off in all the bad directions.

Shouto's father was Endeavor, right? The second best hero in Japan! So why was mention of him making Izuku nervous?

Shouto seemed to gather his resolve. "He doesn't care about me as a person. He just wants his 'masterpiece' back." He sighed. "Have you heard of quirk marriages? Where two people marry for the express purpose of passing on a stronger quirk to their children. Endeavor could never beat All Might, no matter how hard he tried. Everything he did ended in failure. So eventually he turned to quirk marriages, winning over my mom's family and getting ahold of her quirk.

"I was the fourth attempt, and the only successful one, in his eyes. Never mind that my oldest brother died because of him, never mind that my sister and other brother suffered horrible neglect under him. I was the only one whose quirk came out the way he wanted, so he'll do anything in his power to bring me home." He sighed.

"In my memory, my mother is always crying. He'd hit her whenever she tried to protect me, whenever he was in a bad mood. Eventually she couldn't take it anymore, only saw him when she looked at me-" he raised his hand to his scar. "-and poured boiling water on my face. That's what my father's obsession caused."

"Shouto…." Mina gaped. Ochako was covering her mouth, horrified. Izuku couldn't speak, could hardly breathe.

Shouto's eyes widened, as if he had suddenly reached some terrible conclusion. "God," He roughly ran a hand through his hair. "I've become just like him! I let my obsession with getting home take precedence over everything else, and all of you were hurt because of it. Mina almost died! My first friends, and I do this-"

Izuku acted on instinct, rushing forward and enveloping Shouto in as tight of a hug as he could manage. The other boy froze up upon impact, but slowly returned the affection.

"You're not like him at all," Izuku said firmly. "You made one bad mistake, and you're beating yourself up over it. He made a lot of much worse mistakes, and he has yet to make them right, might never do so." It was sickening, to think that he once looked up to the number two hero.

"That's why you almost never used your fire powers," Ochako inferred. Judging by Shouto's muffled exclamation, she had guessed right. "Because they come from him, right? Shouto, that's your power, not his! He has no right to control your life like that, and he has no right to control your feelings over your quirk either!"

"What happened might've been partially your fault," Mina admitted. "But it was partially our fault as well. And mostly Cipher's fault! What happened with your dad, that's just his fault, and no one else's. You're not him. We know you're better than him." With that, she got out of her bed and joined the two boys in the group hug. Ochako followed quickly after.

"You're our friend, Shouto," Izuku whispered. "We care about you so much. Don't beat yourself up about this, because we don't blame you at all."

"And whatever your father tries to pull, we'll do whatever we can to help you." Mina said. "Just tell us what you need."

Shouto's sobs came quietly at first, then started pouring out all at once. Izuku held him tightly as Shouto's tears stained his shirt, trying to convey that he wasn't about to let go. The four of them sat there on the ground, in that group hug, for a long time.

Things weren't anywhere near perfect. But they certainly were starting to get better.

* * *

When Shouto woke up, it was still dark outside.

It hadn't been from a dream this time, thankfully. Maybe all those days of sleep made his body accustomed to only getting a few hours each night. Was that how sleeping habits worked? He wasn't sure.

His stomach rumbled. Shouto stood up carefully and made his way out of the attic, trying as best he could not to wake his friends.

Something warm fluttered in his chest. His _friends_. They knew him, had seen the worst he had to offer, and accepted him anyways. And not just Izuku, Mina, and Ochako, but Soos and Wendy as well. Even Stan had been weirdly understanding the last few days!

He found himself in the kitchen, and flopped down in one of the chairs. His eyes partially closed again. Maybe he should've stayed in the attic, just tried to go back to sleep. His stomach rumbled again.

Shouto glared at the fridge door, wishing he had Ochako's amulet so that he could just float an orange over to him. Without really considering it, he stretched out his hand, willing for said orange to just come to him on his own.

Bright blue flames covered the fridge door, which slammed open. The orange flew into his palm.

* * *

**So. One part cliffhanger, one part major deviation from GF canon. Why did Shouto keep some of Bill's powers? Is Bill aware that this happened? If he is, is it all part of his plan? I know the answers of course, but I'm curious to see what you think.**

**Next chapter we'll be back to season one episodes, so be prepared for a bit of breather. These kids seriously need it.**

**On the plus side, Shouto's character development! This may sound a little ranty, so skip past it if you wish, but one thing I've noticed about a lot of aus is that unless the Todoroki's escape Endeavor early, Shouto's character development relies on his Sports Festival battle with Midoriya, and if it doesn't happen, he doesn't change. Not to mention in some of those stories, his negative traits are amped up way beyond canon level, and if he does have the SF fight, he just switches to his post development self. **

**It seems people think his development is centered around being forced to use his flames, even when he doesn't want to. When I watched his fight with Izuku, I always got the sense that it wasn't really about the fight, or Shouto's flames (although that certainly played a part), but Izuku's sheer willingness to put everything he had on the line to help Shouto, in a way no one had done for him before. The fight might've triggered his flames, but being confronted with the fact that someone cares _that_ much about him, that he can be someone worth caring for, that's what made him change to be a better person.**

**In this au, Shouto has not only Izuku, but Mina, Ochako, Wendy, Soos, and even Stan. Friendship and character development is inevitable. **

**Rant over.**

**Speaking of seriously needing something, if there's anyone reading this who would like to beta the story, please let me know! I try to go over my work and fix all the little mistakes, but I obviously miss some things. Having a beta reader would be a great help.**

**That's all for now! I hope you enjoyed, and don't forget to review!**


	10. Groundhog's Fair

**Hello again! The muse has struck fast, so I'm back with another chapter of Academia Falls! This one's shorter than the last few, but there are many longer chapters that await. Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

It was a new day in Gravity Falls, and the cheapest fair possible was being set up by the cheapest crew Stan Pines could find. Izuku's heroic instincts still told him this whole setup was absolutely terrible, but after nearly a month of living with the older man, he found that he'd come to appreciate Stan's cheapskate tendencies and casual lawbreaking ways.

In fact, Stan looked downright proud as he watched the fair being put together, Izuku and Ochako next to him. "There she is kids. The cheapest fair money can rent. I saved every expense." He threw his arms up in the air dramatically, gesturing to his new pet project.

It was at that moment when something close to them groaned and snapped. Izuku instinctively looked towards the noise, then yelped and jumped away as one of the trams broke free from the Ferris wheel and went plummeting downwards. Shouto, who was apparently in said tram at the time, let out a strangled yell and his hands glowed blue. Just before it hit the ground, the tram burst into blue flames, and from those flames emerged a donkey, which bucked Shouto off it wildly and ran off into the woods.

Shouto groaned and rubbed his back as Izuku and Ochako went over to help him out. "I think the tram's broken."

"We can see that," Ochako laughed lightly, hauling him to his feet. "I could've just caught you, you know."

Shouto looked away awkwardly. "I wanted to try using my fire."

"Still haven't gotten the hang of it?" Izuku sympathized.

Shouto looked disgruntled, rubbing his bandages. "It does what I want maybe half the time I use it. The other half, things end up flying around the room, bursting into flames, or... well..." He gestured to where the donkey had gone.

"Cipher was a pretty chaotic entity-thing. Maybe that's why it's all wonky," Ochako suggested.

Shouto nodded. "That would make sense. Guess I'll just have to deal with it for now."

Stan snickered at their antics, although his eyes seemed drawn to the Ferris wheel. "Yeah well. You better hope no one notices one of the trams are missing, or that's out of your pocket book."

"I doubt anyone will," Izuku reassured him. "This is Gravity Falls, remember?"

"You've learned! I like it." Stan smirked. "Alright kids, I've got a job for you. And Mina, wherever she is at the moment." He reached into his suit and pulled out a stack of papers with blue 'A's on them. "I printed up a bunch of fake safety inspection certificates. Go slap one on anything that looks like a lawsuit."

Ochako took the papers. "I hate to ask this, and I think I already know the answer, but is this even close to being legal?"

"When there's no cops around, anything's legal," Stan said cheerfully. Figuring that there was no point in arguing that statement, the four split the papers evenly. Izuku just hoped to get the job done quickly at this point.

"Soos!" Stan called out. "How's that dunk tank coming along?" Izuku glanced back over to see Stan approaching the friendly repairman, who was wielding the bulls-eye part of the dunk thank set up.

"Almost ready to go Mr. Pines," Soos said dutifully. Stan rapped on the bulls-eye, laughing at how Soos had rigged it for him. Izuku sighed fondly and turned away.

* * *

"It's twelve o'clock!" Stan announced. Ochako covered her ears as a screeching sound came from the older man's megaphone. She looked over to see him in a swimsuit, sitting on a platform above a tank of water. "The dunk tank is now open! Step right up and Dunk me folks. Talkin' to you, cut offs. That's right muffin top, high pants. Who wants a piece of me?"

Everyone threw their balls at the tank at once. Stan cackled as the platform refused to drop.

"Should we tell them he rigged it?" Izuku wondered as they wandered around with their strangely shaped question mark corn dogs. "I mean, someone's going to figure it out eventually, right?"

"Probably not for a while." Mina munched on her pretzel without a care. "Besides, the more cash he makes at this thing, the more lax he'll be with us for slacking off when we work in the gift shop later."

"Fair enough," Izuku conceded. "What should we do for now? Any games you guys want to play?"

"No rides," Shouto said automatically. "Those things are death traps."

"Come on, there has to be something fun here that isn't entirely a scam," Ochako encouraged. "I mean, maybe. I'm still not sure how he rigged some of those ball games. I didn't even know it was possible to do what he did with a basketball net."

Mina brightened and looked around. "You're right, I'm sure there's something he can't rig! Like, I dunno… pigs!"

"It would be pretty hard to rig pigs." Shouto mused. "Maybe a weight guessing game with a rigged scale?"

"No, I mean really! There are pigs over there that you can win!" Mina pointed at a sign nailed to one of the wooden polls, saying "win a pig" and pointing towards a large booth in which various little pigs were roaming around. Mina ran over, the rest of them following close behind her.

"If you can guess the critter's weight, you can take the critter home!" The guy with brown suspenders running the both announced. Mina stopped in front of the booth and examined all the different pigs.

"Oh, look at that one!" Izuku and Shouto had caught up to them, and Izuku was pointing at a small cute pig with a small spot over its eye, sitting up straight at looking at them innocently. "He's so cute!"

"You're right," Ochako agreed. "He's the cutest of the bunch." The pig grunted softly, and she couldn't help but coo.

"We have to get him," Mina announced. "And name him Waddles. Definitely Waddles."

Shouto looked more amused than anything, although he still decided to play the voice of reason, as he had been before. "Do we have the means to take care of him?"

Mina waved that off. "I'm sure Stan's got something. He was able to get all these pigs here and keep them healthy for the fair, after all."

The unfortunately familiar sound of snobby laughter drew Ochako's attention away from the pig and towards three girls dressed in nice clothes, snickering at them. "Oh look," the blond girl with large hoop earrings said. "Looks like little miss alien found a long lost family member." The other two girls snickered again, and Ochako felt her blood boiling.

Shouto narrowed his eyes. "If Waddles is a long lost family member of Mina's, how close does that make you to that garden snake over there? After all, Mina looks nothing like Waddles, and you have all the same mannerisms as that thing. Maybe a second cousin."

"I think first cousin once removed." Mina's eyes sparkled.

"Guys stop, you're making them too closely related, and that's not very nice," Izuku said. "I'm sure that snake would never be as cruel as she is." Ochako burst into surprised laughter, Mina following right behind. The blond huffed angrily and stomped away.

"Serves Pacifica right, the jerk." Mina wiped her eyes, still smiling. "Looks like she can't take what she dishes out."

"So that's the rich girl you were talking about earlier. Huh." Izuku watched her go.

"All the more reason to dislike her," Ochako said firmly. "I'm almost sad I wasn't able to get a joke in before she left."

Shouto turned to Mina. "Jokes aside. Are you alright?"

Mina grinned at him. "I'm fine, don't worry. Her opinion doesn't matter, and I'm not going to let her ruin my day." She looked up at suspenders, who was watching their conversation curiously. "Sir, I want to win that pig." She pointed at the newly dubbed Waddles.

"Of course!" Suspenders said. "For two tickets, you can guess his weight."

Ochako felt her face falling. "Two tickets? We only have one, 'cause Stan rigged the whole fair!"

"Is there anyway that we can get him with one?" Izuku pleaded.

"Sorry. You need two tickets to get the pig. That's just the rules." Suspenders shrugged. "Come back when you have another ticket. Pig won't be gone by then."

"Alright!" Mina pumped her fist in the air. "Let's win another ticket! Mystery Crew! Mystery Crew!" Ochako laughed, and she and the boys joined the chanting.

It was nice, Ochako realized. She hadn't laughed like that in a while, not with everything that had happened recently.

Maybe things really were getting better.

* * *

They returned with their second ticket. After multiple tries of rigged games, Ochako had simply used her magic to float their way to victory in one of the ball games. They were headed back to the pig stand, clutching their prize.

"All right, Waddles, here we- Ow!" Mina had briefly turned around to look at them, only to smack right into a bald man with goggles and a weird jumpsuit. He snatched his fallen measuring tape off the ground and ran away.

Izuku helped her off the ground. "You good?" he asked.

"Yeah, don't worry." Mina brushed herself off. "Some jerks just don't have any manners." They rounded the corner to where the pig stand was.

"We're back." Ochako looked around the stand. "Where's Waddles? You know, the pig we were trying to get," She elaborated at suspender's confused look.

"Oh, someone got to him before you." Suspenders shrugged nonchalantly. "Sorry." He pointed in the other direction, and Mina turned to see Pacifica with a leash on poor Waddles, pulling him away against his will. The leash was tightening around the pigs neck, and it looked like he was struggling to breathe."

"He's going to choke!" Izuku had clearly come to the same conclusion as Mina had. She started forward, but was outstripped by Ochako, who was storming towards the rich girl with a look of absolute fury in her gaze.

"How dare you! First you insult my friend, then hurt a poor animal - you asshole!" And with that, the usually cheery girl punched Pacifica Northwest right in the jaw. Izuku gasped, Pacifica cried out in pain and her entourage screamed, and Blubs and Durland, their arms full of cotton candy, showed up just seconds later.

"Ma'am, we're going to have to ask you to leave the fair, on account of misconduct," Blubs said.

"No punching the town's richest kid like that!" Durland added. Pacifica smirked.

"Officers, it wasn't her fault, she didn't start it," Izuku tried to reason with them.

"All I did was win the pig they wanted before they did," Pacifica whined. "Is that really a crime? An excuse for punching a young girl in the face?" Her jaw was already starting to bruise. Clearly Wendy's lessons were paying off.

"Of course not," Blubs reassured the blond. "Miss, please leave the fair," he said to Ochako.

* * *

Mina groaned and put her head in her hands. This was all a disaster.

It was beginning to grow dark, and all the lights on the different attractions lit up. It was pretty, sure, but Mina couldn't find it in herself to care.

Ochako lay next to her, equally disappointed. "Today was the absolute worst," She announced. Mina nodded morosely. "I can't believe I got kicked out of the fair. And Pacifica went home with Waddles! That rich snot, I'll bet she's going to treat him terribly."

"Yeah…" Izuku trailed off, running his fingers through the grass. He was clearly as disappointed as they were. "If only we could just undo one thing. We could've made it to the stand before Pacifica did, and we would have, if not for-"

"That guy." Shouto pointed. Mina sat up, and sure enough, the bald man in the jumpsuit, with his back turned to them, working on something they couldn't see.

Ochako jumped up, the rest of them right behind her. "Hey you! Toolbelt! You cost us our pig!"

The man jumped. "Huh? W-what? A-ah! My position has been compromised! Assuming stealth mode!" He turned his watch, which changed his jumpsuit color to TV static. "Color match, initiating color match!" The jumpsuit changed to match different places in Gravity Falls, but certainly not matching what was behind him. "C-come on, dangit!" He pulled out a screwdriver and started fiddling with the watch.

Izuku looked at the watch with sparkling eyes. "That's some pretty neat tech!"

"Are you from the future or something?" Shouto theorized.

"N-no! Who told you that!?" The man was sweating profusely. Memory wipe!" He threw some sort of blue wipe on Shouto's face.

Shouto pulled it off, looking flatly at the man. "This is a baby wipe."

"Want to try again? From the top?" Mina offered. "Maybe tell us who you really are."

"Ugh." The man sat down on some haystacks. "You four caught me. I'm a time traveler."

"Woah," Izuku breathed.

An idea sparked in Mina's mind. "So…" She started. "If you're from the future, do you have some sort of time machine, or something?"

The man shrugged. "That's kinda how it works."

Mina thought about their terrible day at the fair. Losing Waddles, having to play rigged games, Ochako getting kicked out… She caught the eyes of the rest of the Mystery Crew, and smiled. It seemed they were all on the same page. "Can I borrow it, please?"

"Out of the question," The man snapped. He brought out his weird tape measurer, the one he had dropped earlier. "This is sensitive time equipment."

"Doesn't look like it," Shouto said coolly.

"You shut your time mouth!"The man pointed at Shouto, who looked entirely unimpressed.

"So," Ochako hedged. "Who are you again?"

"Blendin Blandin," Blendin brought out his card. He looked very sweaty and uncomfortable in the picture. "Time anomaly removal crew, year twenty-sNeventy-twelve." He put the card away. "My mission is to stop a series of time anomalies that are supposed to happen at this very location!" He looked around. "B-but I don't see any anomalies. I don't know if it's some kind of paradox, or if I'm just really tired." He sat down once again, clutching his forehead.

The four friends looked at each other, and somehow Mina knew they were all on the same page. "You know," Izuku started. "You look like you could use a break. This is a fair, why don't you go and enjoy some of the rides? I think after a long day, it's about time you treated yourself."

"You know what?" Blendin got to his feet. "What the heck. I'm worth it!" He took the offered tickets from Izuku, the ones they weren't able to use earlier. "But I've got my eye on you!" They all watched as he walked over to the barrel ride, where Soos was manning the tickets. "One please!"

"Sorry dude, but you're gonna have to take your belt off for the ride," Soos said. "One of your tools might fly off and accidentally fix something."

Blendin handed him the belt with the time machine on it. "Guard it with your life!"

"I will watch it like a hawk, dude," Soos assured him. Blendin clambered into one of the barrels, and Soos started the machine, watching Blendin have his fun. Seeing her chance, Ochako floated the time machine over to them, and they ducked behind another attraction.

"Nice!" Mina examined the machine. It didn't look that out of the ordinary, save for the hourglass symbol on the front. Maybe that was the point, to not attract attention? "Now we can go back and save Waddles."

Izuku picked up the time machine. "Let's start at the beginning of the day. That way we'll have all the tickets we need when we first go over to that suspenders guy."

"Sounds like a plan! Everyone hold onto each other." Ochako said. She gripped Izuku's arm. Shouto put his hand on Izuku's shoulder, and Mina high fived Shouto. Izuku pulled out the tape, stopping around twelve hours, and letting it go, and with a flash, they were all going back.

* * *

"There she is kids." Stan gestured proudly towards the fair. The cheapest fair money can rent. I saved every expense." There was a groaning noise, and Izuku jumped out of the way without thinking as Shouto took his tumble in the tram. Once again Shouto's hands glowed blue, and there was a flash… and the tram turned into a murder of crows, which took off in every direction."

Izuku blinked. "Um… pretty sure that was a donkey last time."

Shouto rubbed his back and pulled himself to his feet. "Yeah. Just when I think I've even somewhat figured this thing out." He glanced over at a slightly confused Stan. "Don't worry, no one will notice the missing tram. This is Gravity Falls."

"I'll hold you to that," Stan promised. He pulled the stack of fake inspection certificates out of his suit. "Slap one of these on anything that looks like a lawsuit, okay?"

"Sure thing!" Ochako took the sheets and spread them out between the four friends, Mina having just arrived. "Because when there's no cops around, anything's legal, right?"

"You got it!" Stan smiled proudly. "Welp, I'm off. Soos, how's that dunk tank coming along?"

"Let's go win some tickets right now," Mina muttered softly. "We'll probably need to cheat, but I don't think that's really an issue at this point."

"Out cheat the cheater," Shouto agreed. "Let's go."

With far more than two tickets in their hands, the group ran over to the pig stand. Mina thrust them towards suspenders. "I'd like that pig please!" She gestured towards Waddles, who was looking far more nervous than Ochako remembered him looking last time.

"Excuse me?" The all spun around to see Pacifica standing there, smug as ever. "In case you didn't notice, I already won the pig. Guess you losers got yourself all worked up a sweat for nothing."

Ochako groaned, glaring at the rich blonde. "Seriously? Why do you even want him anyways? Is it too much for you to have everything else that your parents could buy you?"

"It's not enough, actually. I don't mind having a little bit extra." Pacifica smirked. "Or a lot. Not that you'd understand. I can tell just by looking at you, you're obviously some poor person. Bet this is the only way you'd ever be able to get a pet, isn't it?"

Ochako was kicked out of the fair once again, earlier than last time, for the exact same reason. She decided it was totally worth it.

* * *

"This totally shouldn't be happening!" Mina groaned, flopping down one the grass in frustration. "Every time, no matter what we do, Pacifica always gets Waddles. She doesn't deserve Waddles! How does this keep happening!?"

"And yet what happens to the tram Shouto falls off always stays the same," Izuku mused, sitting down next to each other. "It could be that something about the structure of the universe is preventing us from getting Waddles…" He glanced over at Shouto. "But Shout's powers seem to be able to counteract that structure."

Shouto narrowed his eyes in thought. "So you're saying if I used my powers, there's a chance we would be able to bypass whatever's preventing us from getting Waddles?" He seemed hesitant. "I don't know. You've seen how unpredictable it is. It could just make everything even worse."

"Or it could make things better," Mina encouraged, re-energized by the idea of getting around this strange time problem. "It can't hurt to try! And even if things go wrong, we could always go back and undo it."

"YOU!" At the yell, they all jumped and looked around to see Blendin pointing their way and glaring at them, clearly out of breath. "You stole my equipment! You kids don't know what you're messing with. Give it back!"

Ochako didn't think, just acted. "Nope, sorry!" She jumped out of the way as Blendin lunged for the machine, accidentally bowling into her friends. Blendin's finger seemed to catch on the edge of the time machine, and the tape pulled out a long way, before snapping back and sending the group careening through time.

They landed on an open dirt road, seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

Izuku rubbed his head. "Where are we?"

"I think you mean 'when are we?'" Mina joked. She glanced to the side, seeing Blendin getting to his feet. "Anyways, whenever we are, we should probably scram."

"We can't just leave him in the past!" Izuku protested.

"He's a time traveler. Shouldn't he have another way to get home?" Ochako reasoned.

"Shh." Shouto was looking past all of them. "Do you hear that?" It was a loud thundering noise, getting closer and closer. Mina let out a gasp as a herd of Buffalo started charging towards them. Ochako floated them all out of the way, including Blendin, who yelped as he was lifted into the air. She set them all down safely on the side of the path.

"Well that's different," Mina managed to say, still somewhat stunned. Blendin seemed to recover from his surprise and glared at the Crew.

"Give it back, dangit!" He charged at them once again,and once again the tape went flying.

They found themselves surrounded by tall trees, and something loud roared at them, and _Holy Shit that's a T-Rex!_ All five of them screamed and ran for their lives, the dinosaur (an actual dinosaur!) chasing after them. Shouto's hands lit up with flames, and he sent them towards the T-Rex, who reared back at the surprising distraction. Izuku took that moment to send them all forwards.

They found themselves in some ruins, and all breathed a sigh of relief. Then Ochako yelped as a laser struck the ground right next to her feet. Looking around, Mina could see chaos in every direction. There were helicopters and people screaming for everyone to run while firing laser guns at a large baby with the time symbol on its forehead, which was laughing and destroying everything in sight.

"Oh I remember this," Blendin mused. "This was the time war! It happened Blevens of years ago, when the great time baby came into power."

"Riiight," Mina said. "We should really get out of here." With quick agreements from everyone else, they vanished into the past.

There was a moment as they took in the peacefulness of the Gravity Falls fishing season sign. Then Blendin was chasing after them again, and the Mystery Crew was off, running from the beach, to the shack, to another side of the shack where those weird gnomes who had tried to capture Mina were gathered, to a snowy forest Mina barely recognized.

"This thing is getting hotter!" Izuku yelled, bouncing the time machine between his hands. The machine was giving off sparks in every direction covering the five of them before fading.

They landed with a thump, right next to the porta-potty at the Mystery Fair, back in the present time. There was Pacifica, receiving Waddles from suspenders.

And there was Blendin, right in front of them. "I'll be taking that!" He snapped, swiping the time machine from Izuku's hands. "Y-You kids don't have any idea what you've done, who you've messed with! How many rules you've broken?"

There was a flash, like the flashes Mina had just seen when they were time travelling, and two burly men appeared, wearing futuristic clothes. One of them snatched the time device from Blendin's hands.

"Blendin Blandin," the other man said, his voice deep and very befitting of some grizzled future guy.

Blendin yelped. "The time paradox avoidance enforcement squadron!"

The men glared down at him. "That's right. And our phones have been ringing off the hook!" One of them said. "There are human footprints in the age of the dinosaurs, and calculators strewn throughout eight centuries!"

Mina glanced at Izuku, who gave a guilty shrug.

"You are under arrest for violation of the time traveler's code of conduct." The two of them grabbed Blendin's arms.

"I-It was those kids!" Blendin sputtered. "They're the criminals, not me! Arrest them, not me!"

"Don't try and blame your crimes on others now." The brown haired man said. "We're going."

Blendin was dragged away. "I-I'll get you for this! I'll go back in time and make sure your parents never meet!"

Mina looked down at her hands. "Well, looks like we're still here."

"Guess he forgot to go back." Shouto shrugged casually. "Too bad. I'm sure my mom would appreciate the gesture."

"Can he even do that to our parents? I don't think time travel correlates to alternate universes" Izuku muttered thoughtfully. A blast drew their attention to the dunk tank, where one of the future police had blasted off the bulls-eye with an arm cannon, sending Stan plummeting into the water as everybody cheered.

Ochako snickered. "After everything his rigged games put us through, I can't say he didn't deserve it."

"'Cause he totally did," Mina chimed in. Still, she couldn't help but be drawn towards the scene of Pacifica horribly handling Waddles, who obviously didn't want to go with her.

Shouto tapped her shoulder lightly. "Izuku thought my power could change the flow of time, right? We might not have been able to test that theory, but…" He held out his hand towards Waddles and Mina watched the pig glow blue.

There was a flash, Shouto let out an undignified yell, and there, in place of a pig, was now a small brown bear cub, a patch of darker fur around one of his eyes. Pacifica shrieked and dropped the now far more dangerous Waddles, who happily trotted over to them and sat down in front of the Crew, huffing contentedly. There was another flash, and Waddles was a pig again.

"I didn't mean to do that." Shouto's eyes were wide. "I just wanted to bring him over."

"I don't think you need to worry about it," Izuku laughed. Mina picked Waddles up and hugged him tight as Pacifica ran away. "Waddles doesn't seem to mind very much."

* * *

They were walking through the fair at night, this time with their very own pig-bear (Waddles seemed to be able to control his transformations between species, and had scared off Robbie when the older teen had come over to antagonize them). It was peaceful, Izuku decided. He hoped there would be more days like this ahead of them.

Mina frowned, looking into her snow cone. "You know, we never did find out what was with all those anomalies Blendin was looking for."

Izuku paused, then slapped his forehead. "Of course! We were the time anomalies he was looking for!"

"Now that just makes my brain hurt." The pink girl sighed. "Whatever. All's well that ends well, right?"

"Except for poor Blendin," Ochako commented. "Think he'll ever come back for revenge?"

"No way. They put him under arrest, remember?" Izuku assured her. "We'll probably never see him again." Not that he didn't feel a bit guilty, seeing as it really wasn't Blendin's fault for just doing his job, but the guy had threatened to erase them from existence, so Izuku wasn't feeling too generous.

Shouto gave a small smile. "We should probably head back to the shack. It's getting late."

And so with hearts and bellies full, the Mystery Crew and their new pig-bear pet walked back home, ready for a brand new day of adventure that was surely awaiting them tomorrow.

* * *

**This Stan Pines has much less conflict with Waddles, if only because it's a lot harder to boss a pig around when the pig can turn into a brown bear whenever he feels like it. It's a good thing Waddles loves Stan anyways.**

**Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed! I love reading every review I get. You guys give me the motivation to continue this story, so thank you so much!, Also, I have a tumbler account, skystones-and-up. So if you have any questions about any of my stories, feel free to ask me there!**

**Anyways, thank you all so much for reading, and I hope you enjoyed!**


	11. The Obligatory Halloween Episode

**Here's a cute short chapter for the upcoming Halloween. After all, where would a show like Gravity Falls be without a Halloween episode? **

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed on the last chapter!**

* * *

The car slammed into the parking space, driving far over the end of it and crashing into the wheelchair sign posted in front of it. Ochako scrambled out of the car, her friends behind her. Stan and Soos stepped out of the front seats.

"Here we are," Stan motioned to the store in front of them. "The Summerween Superstore." It looked pretty average, with a nice sign and a giant inflatable bat sitting on top of it.

"Hang on," Shouto frowned at the sign. "What do you mean, Summerween?"

"Heh, that rhymes," Soos smiled. Mina chuckled good naturedly.

"Summerween," Stan explained. "The people of this town love Halloween so much they celebrate it twice a year."

"Of course they do."

Stan, nonplussed, pulled out a calendar and pointed to the date. "And wouldn't you know, it's today!"

"How come we haven't heard about this before?" Ochacko asked.

Stan shrugged. "It's sort of a one day only kind of thing."

"Do you always keep that calender in your pocket?" Izuku wondered.

Stan shifted awkwardly. "Yes. Anyways, it's a good chance to scare kids and steal their candy, so what's not to love?"

"He has a point." Ochako turned to her friends and grinned. "How could we say no to a night of getting lots of free candy?"

"Exactly! Now everyone inside, if we want to get as much free stuff as we can, we'll need to work fast." With that, Stan ushered them inside the doors.

Mina slipped inside the store first, jumping into one of the wheelbarrows the superstore had to carry items in. As though reading her mind, Shouto grabbed the handles and pushed her as fast as he could in the narrow hallways while Mina laughed, pointing forward dramatically. "To the costume isle!"

"Hang on, wait up!" Ochako and Izuku followed suit, and neither could keep the smiles off their faces. Ochako noticed Soos pressing the different skeleton heads in another isle.

"I'd lend you a hand, but I don't seem to have any!" One of them said.

Soos chuckled. "This guy tells it as it is!"

They reached the costume isle, where Shouto and Mina were already browsing. Mina was frowning at the different costumes. "It's too bad we can't dress up as heroes here, seeing as none of them exist in this world."

"Not to mention that might not count for "dressing up", Shouto added. "Considering the fact that we're heroes ourselves, even if we are still in training."

"What about dressing up as villains?" Ochako suggested. "Go for some real opposites in our costume choices?"

Izuku shifted uncomfortably. "I dunno about that. Seems a little bit too much. Not to mention no one knows about any villains here either."

"Besides, who would we dress up as? Handjob?" Mina snorted. Shouto choked on air, Izuku went into a hacking fit, and Ochako found a laugh tearing from her throat. Mina turned back to the costumes, a smile on her face. "How about these?" She pulled a few costumes off the rack. "Adventurers! That's what we've become here anyways, isn't it? And Izuku can use that knife from the bunker for added effect."

Izuku brightened, pulling the knife out of his pocket. "It's actually even cooler than I first thought! I know the author said it was a magic knife, but they never mentioned how to use any of that magic. I've been taking the time to figure it out myself." He rubbed his finger over one of the symbols on the hilt, and the knife started glowing softly. "Check it out! Instant flashlight, no batteries required."

"Useful," Shouto agreed.

"Nice! And I've got my trusty grappling hook to complete my costume!" Mina posed dramatically. "I, ah, left that at the shack. But it's there, and I can use it!"

"Alright then," Ochako pulled four different "adventurer" costumes off the racks, stacking them in the air in front of everyone. "Looks like we've got what we need."

"We'll need bags to put the candy in," Shouto corrected.

"And something for Waddles!" Izuku added. "Is there anything that could fit a pig, and also a bear?"

"I think the fact that he can turn into a bear is a costume in and of itself," Ochako pointed out, as Shouto carefully avoided their eyes. Ochako wondered if he still felt bad about that.

They re-emerged from the costume isle to see Soos pressing as many skeleton heads as he could, as well as Stan carrying around a barrel of blood, which seemed to be leaking, taking his time to stop and scare some babies.

The woman working there looked pissed. "Have the police come and eject the Pines family from the store," she said.

"Not today!" Stan threw a smoke bomb on the ground in front of her, and while she yelled and covered her eyes, the six of them ran past her, throwing all their things into the car. Stan stomped on the gas, deflating a blow-up watermelon in the process.

"You paid for this stuff, right?" Izuku wondered.

Stan waved him off. "Of course. Let's move!" And they speed off as fast as Stan's old car could take them.

* * *

"You're costumes are looking great, dudes!" Soos said. He was wearing blue face paint over his eyes, a blue cape, no shirt, and yellow and blue pants. Izuku wondered if he was dressed as something they didn't have in their world. "I'm sure you'll get lots of candy!"

"Oh, absolutely!" Mina grinned. This is going to be the best Summerween ever! And not just because it's our only Summerween ever."

"This will be my first time celebrating any kind of Halloween," Shouto admitted. "Old man hated the holiday. I'm kind of excited, actually."

"You should be!" Izuku gave him a reassuring smile. "I went out for a while when I was a kid, and I had a blast." Until the 'blast' part was a bit more literal. Then he stopped, if only to evade Kacchan for one night.

"Well, you dudes better watch out for ghosts and goblins," Soos advised. "Not to mention-" he grabbed a flashlight and put it under his chin. "The Summerween trickster." He wriggled his fingers for effect.

"What's that?" Ochako asked. "I mean, I can kind of guess, but... "

"The trickster goes door to door, so the legend goes, eating children who lack the Summerween spirit," Soos informed them.

"Well, you don't need to worry about us," Mina said brightly. "We've got spirit to go around!"

"Also, does fifteen still count as children?" Shouto wondered as the pink girl popped a candy in her mouth, promptly spitting it out in disgust.

"Ugh, what is this stuff? I've never even heard of these brands!" She pulled out a few candies. "Sand pop? Gummy Chairs? Mr. Adequate bar?" She waved the last one around. "Are these normal for this world?"

"Nah, it's still the cheap stuff here as well," Soos shrugged. "But you'd best not show your discontent, lest the Summerween trickster hear you."

"Well, he's welcome to this candy if he wants it." Mina put the candies back into the bowl. "Consider it a donation, in the spirit of Summerween." The doorbell rang, and they all turned towards it.

"Tricker Treaters!" Stan called out from another room, where he seemed to be preparing to frighten off some hapless children. "Quick, give them some of that terrible candy!"

Izuku grabbed the bowl and the four headed towards the door to great the trick-or-treaters. "Happy Summerween! Ah-oh! Wendy, Robbie." Izuku widened the door to let them in. "What are you guys doing here?" He noticed Robbie's arm was slung around Wendy, were they dating? Wendy hadn't mentioned.

"Forgot my jacket here," Wendy said, rolling her eyes and grabbing said jacket. "Again, ugh."

"Well, it was good to see you anyways," Mina offered. Wendy smiled.

"Yeah, it's real nice. Real nice of Stan to let me off early too." She looked at Shouto and Ochako. "You guys practicing what I taught you, like I said?"

"Every night," Shouto said. Ochako nodded in agreement.

Wendy bumped Ochako's shoulder fondly. "That's great. We'll work on it more tomorrow, okay?"

"Fine with me!"

Robbie huffed dramatically, obviously put off by being ignored. He focused in on the bowl in Izuku's hands. "What's the bowl of candy for?" He mocked. "You kiddos going trick-or-treating?"

"Yeah, we are," Ochako scowled at him, obviously still pissed at him for his demeaning words in the convenience store, as well as the occasional time where his dramatics stopped them from getting Waddles a few days ago. "You got a problem with that?"

Robbie sneered down at her. "Uh, yeah, duh. Halloween and Summerween are for babies, everyone knows that."

"I'm sorry you feel that way." Izuku smiled up at him. "I'm personally excited. I mean, who would turn down a whole night of being able to get free candy? As long as it isn't that weird cheap stuff of course."

"Claiming to be "too cool for Summerween" sounds like your compensating for something," Shouto added dryly. "Your own deep insecurities, perhaps?" Izuku forced down a laugh. Ochako and Mina didn't even try.

Even Wendy chuckled a bit, sending an apologetic look at her boyfriend when he sent a hurt look her way. "You do you, you guys. I think it's cool that your still into this kind of stuff at your age. If you feel sick of it though, Tambry's throwing a party we're heading to, you could come join us." She gave them an orange slip of paper with the address.

Mina looked the paper over. "Thanks for the offer! We'll think about it."

Wendy and Robbie drove away, and soon after Candy and Grenda arrived. Candy was fittingly dressed as a piece of Candy, and Grenda had gone simple and classic by dressing as a witch. The four friends quickly changed into their outfits and regrouped as someone rapped on the door.

"I've got it." Mina swung open the door. "Hello there! How has your Summerween been going?"

"Silence!" The deep voice from outside said. "You have insulted me. And for this you must pay. With your _lives_." The person leaned in, revealing a small orange pumpkin mask on their head.

"That's a pretty cool costume!" Mina looked up at him. Izuku looked down however, and couldn't help but notice that his legs were far too skinny to be real human legs.

"Um, Mina...?" He looked upwards at the thing.

"You think I'm funny?" The thing ducked inside the house, just as a boy in a pirate costume came trotting up their steps. The thing took one look at the boy and opened its massive mouth beneath the mask, swallowing the kid whole.

_Did… Did he just see…?_ Izuku drew his knife. Mina drew her grappling hook. Blue flames lit up Shouto's hands, and a glow surrounded Ochako's necklace.

"What did you just do?" Ochako demanded, hands shaking slightly. "How could you do that to him?"

"Oh, put the toys away. They can't hurt me," the trickster scoffed. "There's only one way to avoid his fate. I need treats. If you can collect five hundred pieces of candy-" He pulled a jack-o-melon out from under his coat and lit it with his finger, "-and bring them to me before the last jack-o-melon goes out, I will let you live."

"You're asking the impossible," Shouto snapped. "Five hundred pieces in one night? Seriously?" Blue fire arched from his palms and towards the trickster, but dissipated on contact.

"This is my night, boy," The trickster said cooly. "Like I said, your little magic tricks won't work, not on the night of the Summerween Trickster." He backed out of the doorway. "The choice is yours children. You must trick-or-treat. Or _die_." And with that, he leapt away, vanishing as quickly as he had come.

"Who was that guy?" Candy wondered as they rushed out to try and spot him.

"It's the legend Soos told us about," Izuku informed them. "The Summerween trickster! Apparently we angered him somehow." He thought back to what they had done and said that night. "Maybe it was our talk about those off-beat brand candy?"

"What do we do!?" Grenda shook Shouto, who looked mildly uncomfortable at the action.

Soos rushed out of the shack. "What's going on? Is everything alright? I heard a ruckus."

"Soos!" Mina ran over. "The Summerween trickster is real! He said if we don't get five hundred pieces of candy in one night, he's going to eat us!"

"I got a picture," Candy showed him. Soos gasped.

"Oh no, you guys are in crazy bonkers trouble," he exclaimed.

Izuku mustered up his courage. "Guys, I know we can figure this out. We've got the brains, the spirit, the strength, the courage, I know we can get five hundred pieces before the end of the night!" All six of them cheered him on, and Izuku internally sighed with relief.

"We could also just head to the store real quick," Shouto offered. They all paused and exchanged glances.

"That sounds like a good idea-"

"Then we wouldn't have to be scared when we really trick or treat-"

"I'm all for not dying-"

And so Soos brought around his truck, and they all headed to the store. As they drove down the streets, Soos pulled to a sudden halt.

"Why are we stopping?" Grenda peered over the backseat to get a better look. "Oh, it's the trickster guy!"

"Not so fast," The trickster hissed. "You think I would let you off with something cheap like that?"

"Um, loopholes?" Soos suggested. "I'm flooring it guys!" He put on a burst of speed, and they drove right through the Summerween Trickster, splitting it apart entirely.

Mina looked behind them cautiously. "Did we get it?"

"It might regenerate," Izuku warned. We should be on guard. Sure enough, the pieces started flying back together. They reassembled into a much more monstrous form, spindly legs and arms poking out of a black, lumpy body. The trickster screamed and lunged, landing on the top of the car roof. Izuku couldn't help but let out a yell as the glass around them cracked and the top of the car dented. Soos swerved, knocking the trickster off, but crashing through the store window and several isles of items.

They all crawled out of the car, coughing, as the trickster entered the store. "We have to hide, Shouto hissed, and they all ran, hiding in the lower empty shelves. The trickster crawled around, searching for them. Izuku was quiet enough that he could hear his breath. Ochako was shivering next to him.

"We have to escape," Candy whispered.

"What if it sees us?" Grenda worried.

"If only we had something we could use to cover our faces and bodies with," Soos mused, standing in between a bunch of costumes. "You know, like a disguise or something." They all gave each other small grins, and dressed as quickly as they could, before sneaking around the isles, pausing whenever the trickster came their way.

They had made it to the exit when Shouto turned around and glared. "Soos!" Izuku looked to see Soos hovering by the skeleton heads, hand poised to press one of them. "Soos, don't you dare," the other boy hissed. They all ducked behind the cash register.

"Sorry dude, today's been way stressful. I need some levity." Izuku could barely breathe as Soos pushed down on the skeleton, cackling at its dumb joke. Ochako let out a tiny gasp as the trickster stood up behind him, drooling from its rows of pointed teeth. Then it opened wide and swallowed him whole.

At that, Izuku couldn't take it anymore. "Hey, trickster!" He pulled out his knife and charged, slicing the things hand off. The others grabbed weapons from another isle and quickly joined in at hacking away.

Grenda licked her lips. "Saltwater taffy? What?"

"Really?" A piece of the trickster landed on Izuku and against his better judgement, he sniffed it. "Wait, this is candy!"

"You haven't figured it out yet?" The trickster grabbed each of them in its arms. "Look at my face." It pulled off the mask, revealing-

"So it was the comment about the off-brand candy that made you mad," Izuku realized. "That's what I thought! It was the only thing that made sense!"

"That's right! Did you ever stop and think about the candy at the bottom of the bag?" The trickster complained.

"Not really," Mina admitted. Shouto elbowed her.

"Every year, the children of Gravity Falls throw away all of the rejected candy into the dump," the trickster continued. "So I seek revenge, on the picky children who cast me aside! No one would eat me." The trickster smiled. "But now, I'm going to eat you." He brought a thrashing Candy closer to his mouth. Izuku could only watch in horror.

But before he could bring the girl any closer, the trickster starting hacking and gasping. His stomach stretched out wider and wider, until Soos burst forth, screaming with reckless abandon.

"Soos!" Izuku cried, relieved. His friends echoed the sentiment.

Soos munched happily on his candy. "'Sup, bro?"

The trickster screamed, candy flying from his mouth as he toppled over, falling defeated to the ground. Soos continued to munch, and the trickster looked up, surprised. "Wait, you actually like me? You think I taste good?"

Soos shrugged. "Sure."

"All I've ever wanted is for someone to say that I was good," The trickster leaned back, content, crying tears of candy corn. "I'm so happy." Then it faded away completely."

The other kid burst out of the candy. "Whew! I've been twamatized!"

Shouto looked at the rest of them awkwardly. "Should we… get to trick-or-treating now?"

Mina shook her head, as to escape the afterimage of what they had just witnessed. "Y-yeah, that sounds like a good idea! Let's go."

* * *

They finally made it back to the shack, hearts and candy bags moderately full. "Hey Stan," Shouto called out as they walked into the living room, where Stan was watching a silly old movie. Grenda, Candy, and Soos greeted him after the four friends had entered.

"How's it hanging." Stan smiled and waved.

"Hey you guys." Wendy was at the table, carving a jack-o-melon. "Guess you decided not to go to the party?" She shrugged when they shook their heads. "You didn't miss much, it was pretty lame. Robbie at a lollipop stick first and had to go home." Ochako snickered.

"He's okay, right?" Izuku worried.

"Yeah, he's fine. They got it out quickly." Wendy smiled reassuringly. "Just injured his pride and all."

"It's too bad we didn't get much candy." Mina lifted her and Shouto's unimpressive haul. His bag had ripped in the skirmish with the trickster, and by the time they had started their trick-or-treating in earnest, it was already late, and most of the candy was already gone.

"We thought about taking some from the superstore while we were in there," Ochako added, "But we figured the damage we did to the building was enough for them to deal with anyways." Or rather, Izuku had voiced that concern, and the rest of them had pretended they had thought of it as well.

"I don't know what you kids did, but I'm proud of you! Sometimes, you need to make sure you don't take everything with you, to raise less suspicions. But speaking of candy-" Stan reached behind his chair and pulled out two massive bags, clearly taken from some spooked children. "-I've got enough to go around!"

Everyone cheered and started divvying up the candy as the Summerween movie marathon continued, and even waddles got in on the chowing down, growling contentedly at Shouto's side in bear form.

"You know kids," Stan said, "I've been thinking. At the end of the day, Summerween isn't about candy, or costumes, or even scaring people. It's a day when the whole family can get together and celebrate what really matters… _Pure Evil!_" He cackled evilly, and everyone else, Gravity Falls citizens and heroes in training alike, couldn't help but join in.

"I ate a man alive tonight," Soos said.

No one had any proper response to that.

* * *

**Bonus:**

_The screen is turned on hastily, and a cardboard cutout is shown in front of the camera._

Izuku: Okay, this is now A Hero's Guide to Gravity Falls number 76, uh, that thing.

_A strange naked and hairy little man-thing is shown, shoveling heaps of Summerween candy into its mouth. It grabs one of the jack-o-melon bags used to store the candy._

Ochako: No, put it down!

_It looks at the screen curiously, like a cat about to so something they know is wrong. Then it licks the side of the bags_.

Mina: Oh, gross!

_The screen changes to show Shouto, decked out with stuffed animals wrapped around him for protection, a gold club in one hand, and a bucket in the other._

Shouto: Alright, time to capture this thing.

Izuku: For the sake of science!

Mina: And for Candy!

_He approaches the cornered thing, which hisses at him, one hand still stuck in the bag of candy. He drops a piece of candy, and the thing lunges towards it. Shouto slams the bucket down, but the thing is quicker, scrambling up the side of the wall and out into the shack. The camera shakes as everyone runs after it._

Ochako: Save the candy!

_The thing scrambles into the living room, where Stan is watching television. The thing drops the candy, becoming transfixed on the screen. Stan doesn't even acknowledge it._

Shouto: I guess the thing's never seen a TV before.

_Mina walks into the camera vision._

Mina: Hah! Dumb things getting sweapt up in the…

_Mina turns to the TV_

Mina: Actually, that's a pretty good show.

_The image cuts to everyone spread out around the chair, watching the show. The thing is eating the golf club as the four young heroes munch on candy._

Shouto: Shouldn't we do something about that?

Ochako: Candy now, monster later.

_Izuku turns to the camera, not even looking as he hands the thing another golf club to munch on._

Izuku: Well, I guess that's it for A Hero's Guide to Gravity Falls. Next episode will probably be about actually getting rid of the candy eating monster.

_Izuku waves, and the camera cuts out._

* * *

**That's it for now! Thank you all so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed, and please don't forget to review!**


	12. The Long Way Down

**I'm back! It's been so long, I know, but this story was never abandoned. I put it on hold to do some other work, and when I came back, I found a lot more awesome reviews! Thank you all so much, you helped me write this chapter a lot faster. **

**(And for the one who asked, everyone in the town is aged up, so Candy, Grenda, Pacifica, etc. are the Mystery Crew's age, while Wendy and her gang are about to enter college.)**

**Anyways, I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

The golf cart skidded to a halt, and its six passengers climbed out, led by none other than Stan Pines himself, proud to show off another one of his great mysteries.

"In this land of ours, there are many pits," he announced, "but none more bottomless than the Bottomless pit." He leaned casually against the sign proclaiming the pit they were standing around to be just that. "Which as you can see here, is bottomless."

Mina peered over the edge of the pit. It dropped down and down, into such darkness that she couldn't see the bottom.

"Question," Soos asked. "Is it bottomless?"

Stan let out a long suffering sigh. "Kids, can one of you try explaining this to Soos?"

"I mean, it's a fair question," Izuku pointed out. "It obviously goes down a long way, but is it bottomless or just a really deep hole? Just about anything can happen in this town, so do you know for sure?"

Stan shrugged. "Honestly, who cares? It's bottomless enough for our purposes."

"Then, why are we here?" Ochako side-eyed him. "You just told us to get in the golf cart without any explanation."

"Easy! To dispose of things we don't want!" Stan reached into his suit and pulled out a bunch of golden slips of paper. "So long, Mystery Shack Suggestion cards! He started pulling more and more out, tossing them in by the handful.

"In that case, I'm getting those creepy letters from Gideon and throwing them in," Izuku decided, running back to the shack.

Soos started taking off his shoes. Shouto frowned. "Soos, what are you doing?"

"Throwing stuff dude. Everyone's doing it!" Soos chucked his shoes in the pit as Izuku ran back with the letters, disposing of them as well.

"Isn't a bottomless pit technically impossible?" Mina wondered aloud, as Soos chucked a mini grill into the pit. "I mean, there has to be an end to it, you can't just keep going down and down into the earth's crust."

"Says you." Stan had taken off his hat, and was hitting the top of it, sending more and more cards into the hole.

Ochako winced. "How many of those things do you have?"

"Lost count at fifty," Stan shrugged. A harsh wind picked up around them, sending the hair flying out of Mina's face, and rolling dark clouds over the previously clear sky. The suddenness of the push against her face was certainly surprising.

Soos put a hand on his hat to keep it from flying off. "It's some sort of invisible pushing force!"

"Let's get back to the shack," Shouto suggested, and everyone else quickly agreed.

"I'm not done getting rid of these yet," Stan snapped, throwing more cards away. This time, however, they flew back in his face and covered his eyes. Stan yelled and stumbled around blindly.

"Stan!" Mina ran back to try and pull the older man away from the pit, where he was standing dangerously close to. He kept trying to put the cards in, and soon all five of them were holding on, determined to keep him from slipping.

Another push of wind, and Stan leaning forward too much, and they tumbled down into the darkness.

Mina screamed, along with everyone else, as the light of the sky got farther and farther away from them. The wind rushed against her skin as she fell down and down, and she could barely hear her own voice.

And then it stopped. Mina looked around. She was still falling, sure, but it felt more like she was just floating in darkness. Everyone else seemed to have come to the same realization as she did. For a few moments, they all just fell in silence together.

"So," Soos said. "Anyone want to scream some more?"

"Where are we?" Izuku wondered. Mina pulled a glowstick out of her sweatshirt pocket and lit it up, pointing it towards all sides of them.

"Somewhere where it looks like we're nowhere," she joked lightly. In truth, it was kind of disturbing, not being able to see any walls around them. The pit definitely wasn't this wide from the outside. She put the glow stick band on her arm and watched, amused, as it floated upwards.

"Welp, looks like we're down here for the long haul." Stan pulled out a deck of cards. "Who wants to see some card tricks?" He tried to shuffle the cards, but they all ended up floating away from him. Stan looked momentarily stunned, but waved it off. "Ta-da!" Mina and Izuku clapped politely.

Soos smiled. "Nice trick Mr. Pines! Hey, maybe we should pass the time by telling stories?"

"Here's one," Shouto deadpanned. "It's about the time Stan got us all thrown into a bottomless pit, where we spent the rest of our natural lives." His friends snorted.

"Go on," Soos said, hand resting on his chin contemplatively.

Izuku elbowed Shouto lightly. "What about the time with the grow and shrink light, where when we first found that? Soos and Stan haven't heard it before."

Shouto deliberated for a moment. "That could work as a story. Okay then. Let's call it… _Fun Size_."

* * *

"Hey Shouto, come check this out!"

Shouto looked up from his book and walked over to where Izuku was flipping through the journal. The green haired boy had the journal open to a page Shouto hadn't seen yet. "What is it?"

"It says here: _Legends of miniature buffalo and giant squirrels have led me to believe that there is something containing height altering properties deep within the woods_." He looked up at Shouto. "Since the girls are dealing with that mermaid guy at the moment, maybe we could check this out?"

"Sounds fine to me," Shouto agreed. They left the shop together and headed into the woods.

"I always love coming here," Izuku said, as they walked through the forest. "Magical creatures aside, it's really nice in these woods."

Shouto raised an eyebrow. "Didn't we just run into a tree giant named Steve who wanted to eat your shirt a few days ago?"

Izuku waved him off. "Sure that was a little nerve wracking at the time, but it all turned out okay in the end. Turns out he was just angry because those strange manotaurs were mocking him right before we ran into him." Strange was the perfect verb to describe the testosterone filled beasts. They especially didn't seem to like Izuku, who had told them that their version of manliness was wrong to their faces, and Ochako, who had bonded with their sworn enemy, the multibear, after the latter had introduced her to some band called BABBA. "Oh hey, I think we're here!"

Shouto looked around. It was definitely a magical looking cave, with glowing pink and blue crystals scattered around. Shouto spotted deer that could fit into his palm trotting around the forest floor, as well as giant butterflies bigger than Izuku flying around.

A growling noise caught their attention, and Shouto looked up to see a mountain lion staring them down.

Izuku squinted at it. "Is that thing small, or is it just perspective?" The mountain lion leapt at them. "Perspective, perspective!" He drew his knife, and Shouto lit his hands up with blue fire. Before either of them needed to make a move, however, the lion passed through the glowing pink light of one of the crystals, and by the time it reached them, it was about the size of a small toy.

Shouto looked at the little crystals scattered across the ground. "These could come in handy for so many different things."

"Agreed." Izuku used the knife to dig one up. He held the little crystal in the air. "Let's see if this thing works with a flashlight!"

They sat out in the lawn as Izuku fitted their little contraption on the flashlight. He turned the crystal one way, and pink light shone out of it. "Smaller." He turned it the other way, and the light turned blue. "Bigger! This is super cool! Wait until the girls hear about this."

"Oh?" Before either of them could react, someone had snatched the flashlight away from Izuku. Shouto turned to see Gideon standing there, before pink light shone in his eyes, and the ground started to get closer and closer. Gideon cackled as he shoved them in a jar, and Shouto and Izuku could only watch helplessly as they were carried away, into Gideon's house and room, and emptied on his desk.

"Gideon, what do you want with us?" Izuku said, eyes scanning the room, clearly looking for a way out.

Gideon cooed at him. "Oh, I only want you to be my best friend forever, you sweet green pea." Izuku glared back at him.

"Did we go over this already? I don't want to be around you until you clean up your act!" Izuku took a few steps back. "This is _not_ cleaning up your act, Gideon."

Gideon narrowed his eyes. "You'll change your mind soon enough, I'm sure." He swung around his desk lamp and pointed it in their faces. Shouto squinted into the bright light. "Now, tell me, how did you come upon this magic item, hm? Somebody tell you about it? Did you _read_ it somewhere?"

Unconsciously, Shouto made eye contact with Izuku. Then he turned back to Gideon. "Come closer, and I'll tell you."

"Don't mind if I do." Gideon leaned in, and Shouto pressed the airhorn button next to him. Gideon screamed and jumped back. In a rage, he smacked the desk lamp away. "I could squash you right now!" And he looked close to doing so, before he collected himself. "Steal yourself, Gideon. You can use them." He placed his hamster on the desk right next to them, before walking out with the light.

"What should we do?" Izuku wondered, as they watched him go. "We can't let him get the shack, or the journal, and we can't stay this height."

Shouto frowned. "I guess we'll just have to follow him. I think I can levitate us down from here."

"Are you positive?" Izuku hedged. "Not that I don't trust you! But your fire is a little… wild."

"Do we have any other choice?" Shouto gestured downwards. At their height, the floor was a long ways away.

Izuku hummed in thought. "I recently figured out more of the tricks on the magic dagger, and one of them can make a strong gust of wind. But I don't know if that would really help or not." He turned to Shouto. "Alright, I guess it's our best option."

"Yeah." Shouto concentrated, and his hands lit up blue. The light flickered and surrounded him and Izuku, before lifting them off the dest and down onto the ground. Once they safely touched down, Shouto let it go with a sigh.

"You did it!" Izuku smiled at him, and even though they both knew Shouto had no control over whether the fire did what he wanted it to or not, he appreciated it just the same. "Let's get out of here."

As they crept their way across the floor, Shouto could hear Gideon screaming at his parents over being tickled, throwing his ice cream across the room, and eventually graping the light and heading out the door, proclaiming about how he was going to shrink the entire shack.

"That kid…" Izuku trailed off, and Shouto didn't blame him. Few words could accurately describe Gideon Gleeful. They ran across the room and climbed through the dog door.

"We can't see anything from this size. We need to get higher." Izuku scanned their surroundings, before pointing to a dollar sign balloon with wings. "There!" They managed to make their way to the top, only to see Gideon get on the bus, right before it took off.

"We need to go after him." Shouto looked at the ropes holding down the balloon. "Izuku, can you free this thing?"

"No problem!" Izuku took out his dagger and sliced the ropes clean off. There was a tilt and a shudder, and then the balloon was soaring through the air. "I can do more than that, I can direct it!" He activated one of the runes, and made a slicing motion behind them. A gust of wind sent them flying in the right direction.

It was an amazing feeling, flying through the air like that. Izuku was laughing and cheering as they soared up and down, and Shouto couldn't help but join in.

Eventually, they landed on the roof of the shack, just as Gideon stepped up to the door. Shouto sent a burst of fire downwards, catching Gideon's hair aflame. Gideon screeched and batted at his hair, dropping the light in the process. The two scrambled downwards.

Shouto flipped the light to "grow", and motioned for Izuku to stand in front of it. Then he turned it on, and Izuku quickly grew to his normal height, snatching up the flashlight, and growing Shouto as well.

Gideon stared at them, hair still on fire. "What - how did you - give me that!"

"Sorry Gideon," Izuku said, "but we're taking you home now." He flipped the light to "shrink" and turned it on.

* * *

"So, what happened after that?" Soos asked. Shouto shrugged.

"We brought mini-Gideon to his house and regrew him there, before getting out as fast as we could."

Izuku chuckled. "It was certainly an adventure. Flying on that balloon was amazing!"

"Getting that thing off the shack wasn't," Stan grumbled.

Ochako laughed and took the glowstick from Shouto. "Okay, okay, I got one. This happened around the same time as when the guys got that light. Hmm, I'll call it… _Hidden Depths_."

* * *

"_Watch out Gravity Falls, because at 110 degrees, we're looking at the hottest day of the summer!_"

As if Ochako didn't already know that. Her and Mina's wax Stan statue melted in the gift shop and the water in their empty fish tank boiled as she laid down on the carpet, a bag of till slightly cold water that used to be ice on her head. Mina was next to her, fanning herself hard, Soos was face down on the floor with no shirt on, Shouto was spread out on the couch, Stan had his back on the hardwood and a tub of ice cream on his stomach, Wendy had covered herself in a mountain of water bottles, and Izuku leaned up against the couch, sending occasional waves of air around with his dagger.

"All in favor of doing nothing all day, say uuggghh," She groaned.

"Uuggghh," was the reply from everyone else in the room.

Waddles, in pig form, clopped over to Stan, who glared non-threateningly. "I'm gonna throw this pig out of the house!" Waddles licked the ice cream off his face and he sighed. "You called my bluff, pig."

"_On the bright side, pun_ very _much intended_," Toby Determined continued on the tv, oblivious to their misery, "_It's opening week at the Gravity Falls Pool_."

Mina brightened. "Gravity Falls pool? And it's finally opening?"

"Aw yeah!" Wendy grinned. "Staying cool and hopefully earning money at the same time? I'm totally ready for this."

"You're lifeguard trained?" Izuku asked her curiously. She nodded.

"Got my certification a couple years ago." She stretched out.

Stan pointed a pumped fist upwards. "Quick, to the car!" He tried to get up, but seemed to find himself stuck to the wood. "Um, kids, a little help here?" Ochako laughed and floated him off the ground.

The pool was already in full swing by the time they arrived with their newly bought swimsuits, with just about everyone splashing in the water or relaxing on a chair. Wendy ran off to join her friends and apply for a lifeguard job, and the rest of them set up their towels on chairs and put on their sunscreen.

Ochako slathered the sunscreen on and turned to pass the bottle to Mina. Instead, she found her friend looking curiously out at the pool. "Who's that guy? I've never seen him before." Ochako glanced to where Mina was looking and saw a long-haired boy about their age, with a pool floatie covering the lower half of his body.

"Oh, him?" Soos leaned over conspiratorially. "They say he showed up at the pool weeks ago and hasn't left the water since."

Mina and Ochako shared a smile. "Magical creature, you think?"

"Only one way to find out." Ochako turned to the guys. "We're going in! See you in a bit."

Izuku smiled at her. "Have fun!"

"Don't get in too much trouble," Shouto added, looking rather amused. Mina laughed and punched his arm, and the two of them jumped into the pool.

Ochako weaved through the different groups of people, diving underwater when she got close to the strange guy. Then she got a good look at what was under his floaty, and she gasped, got a mouth full of chlorine, and had to come up for air and spit it out.

"What is it?" Mina asked, swimming over.

"Mermaid," She choked out. "He's a mermaid. Or merman, whatever. He's got a tail." Mina's eyes went wide.

"That's so cool! Let's talk to him."

The merman's eyes went wide as they approached, looking rather worried. Ochako tried for her friendliest smile. "Hello! We noticed you've been by yourself for a while. Would you like some company?"

He frowned. "I suppose I have been a little lonely… but I don't know." His accent sounded European, but it was hard to place.

"Don't worry, we don't bite," Mina assured him. "I'm Mina, and that's Ochako." The boy's eyes went wide as he looked at her, and she took notice. "I know I don't exactly look normal, but I'm pretty harmless."

"It is just…" He trailed off uncertainly. "Everyone here doesn't mind that you are not like them?"

"Nope!" She grinned encouragingly. "I've made a lot of friends in this town that don't mind. Everyone here is really open-minded when it comes to strangeness."

"I see." He looked thoughtful. "I suppose I can trust you with my secret then. My name is Mermando, and I am, well. I suppose I'll just show you." He pushed away the floaty to show his tail.

Ochako didn't have the heart to tell him they'd seen it earlier. "Wow, that's amazing! It's so pretty!"

"Oh, you think?" Mermando brightened. "Why thank you."

Mina frowned. "If you don't mind me asking, how did you end up in a public pool?"

Mermando sighed deeply. "It is a tragic story. I was swimming with my friends, the mighty dolphins, when I was ensured by a fishing net! They had decided to ship me off as cargo to Gravity Falls, but I managed to escape into the river, and tried to swim back home! But it was not to be. I nearly died of dehydration, but was found by animals and ended up falling down a slippery slope, and into this pool, where I have been ever since."

Ochako and Mina exchanged glances. Mina shrugged. "That sounds crazy enough to be true."

"I'm so sorry," Ochako told him. "Is there any way we can help you get home?"

"I do have a theory," Mermando admitted. "This Gravity Falls lake is very strange. It connects to many different places somehow, including the ocean. I do not know how it works, only that it does. If I could just get to the lake, I could go home! But that would require walking there, and I am unable to do that. Not to mention, there is the head lifeguard." He nodded towards a blonde, tanned, and extremely severe looking man.

"But we can!" Ochako punched her palm. "Mermando, we've been living with an expert lawbreaker for weeks now. If anyone can get you out of this pool and to the ocean, it's us."

"I'll go tell Izuku and Shouto what we're doing, and then we'll make a plan," Mina decided.

They came back at night, after the guard finally went home, courtesy of Wendy, who was in on the plan. Mermando perked up at the sight of them.

"You came! But the cooler we planned to use was taken home by the head lifeguard! What are we going to do now?"

"No worries." Mina brought out their new flashlight. "Our friends gave this to use. If you're okay with it, we can shrink you down into this small container, and then make you normal size again once we reach the lake."

Mermando thought for a moment. "I don't think I have another choice. And shrinking does seem like it might be fun. Okay, I am ready."

Mina turned on the pink light, and Ochako floated Mermando and some of the water around him into the container. They climbed back over the fence and sped off in their golf cart, heading for the lake.

"You okay in there?" Ochako asked him.

"I am alright!"

They made it to the lake, and Ochako dipped the container in the ocean. Mina turned on the blue light, and Mermando returned to his normal size.

"I can't thank you two enough," he said.

Ochako gave him a thumbs up. "It's no trouble. We're heroes, it's what we do!"

* * *

"So, let me get this straight. You guys had to fight giant robots to get into hero school? What about the people who don't have quirks for fighting robots, but can still be super heroic, just in different ways. Like heroes who want to rescue people."

"Well…" Izuku trailed off awkwardly at Soos' question. To be completely honest, he had thought about the same thing before, but had always brushed it off, because it was UA. When said out loud like that, he didn't really have an answer.

"It does sound kinda rigged," Mina admitted reluctantly.

Soos frowned. "You said your teacher had a quirk that could erase quirks, right? How did he become a hero? He couldn't have fought the robots. And wouldn't his quirk not be useful for any of those tests you said he made you do on the first day or you'd be expelled?"

"That was just to motivate us," Ochako protested weakly.

Stan snickered. "Sounds like a good motivator, all right. Scaring kids half to death on their first day of school sounds like fun!"

They all fell in awkward silence for a minute. Then Mina took the glowstick from Ochako. "So, how about we tell another story? I think I'll call this one… _Several Troubles_."

* * *

Mina tapped Izuku on the shoulder, and he spun around to face her, looking up from the journal in his lap. "Oh, h-hey! What's up?"

She smiled and motioned to Candy and Grenda. "So Grenda and Candy stopped by to say hi, and to tell us that this big boy band is coming to perform in Gravity Falls!"

"They're amazing!" Grenda gushed. "How many times am I gonna love ya?"

"Several times!" Candy cheered. Mina laughed and turned to Izuku.

"So, they invited all of us to go with them, but Shouto and Ochako are busy training with Wendy, so I was wondering if you wanted to come instead?"

Izuku beamed. "Sure! I've never really been that into boy bands, but I also haven't been to one of their shows. Thanks for inviting me."

"Of course!" Grenda pulled him to his feet. "You're our friend too! Let's go have some fun and meet some more cute guys!" Izuku blushed, and Mina laughed at him, and the four of them headed out.

The Gravity Falls Civic Center was surprisingly crowded, with everyone from Pacifica to McGucket there to see the band. Mina led the charge up to the ticket line, where Pacifica happened to be right in front of them. They reached the counter, and Mina held out their money. "Tickets please!"

The ticket seller, a boy with a massive acne problem, sneered down at them. "To late kids. Show's sold out." And with that, he slammed the window screen down on them.

Mina let out a huff. "Rude!"

Candy groaned. "The night is ruined. I welcome you, death."

"Come on, don't get so down!" Izuku protested. "This is Gravity Falls! You know what that means?"

"Doing illegal things is par for the course and you won't get caught or get in trouble for it?" Mina offered.

"Exactly." Izuku pointed to the doors leading backstage, with a massive Keep Out sign. "We can sneak through there." They rushed towards the doors, and Izuku looked around before tapping the lock with his dagger. It opened easily.

"That's useful," Grenda noted appreciatively. They all stepped inside, and headed towards the door with Several Timez name on it. Mina held the door and grinned.

"Everyone ready?" They all nodded, and she opened it.

Then her jaw dropped.

Instead of a normal dressing room, this one was filled with cloning tubes where little blond boys were in various stages of development. The actual group of band members were in a human sized hamster cage, acting very much like small animals.

"This, is not what I expected," She managed to say.

"No kidding." Izuku laughed nervously. "How did this even happen? How did nobody notice that this was going on? What even is this? I mean they're clones, but how?"

"Never meet your heroes, kids," Grenda said solemnly.

"Think they have a human sized hamster ball?"

"Mina!"

"Sorry, had to get that out there."

"Someone's coming!" Candy hissed. They all jumped behind a rack of clothing.

A rather large bald man with a gold cane and tooth stepped into the room, looking pretty mad. "Terrible show! What is wrong with you boys? You barely even sold out the arena! And Deep Chris, you call that a pout?" Deep Chris pouted even more. "Every one of you should be ashamed of yourselves. Except you Leggy P, you were really on point tonight. Here you go." He tossed Leggy P some food, and the man gobbled it up greedily, hissing at the others when they tried to come near. "And remember, you can always be replaced by your brothers. Dance for me child, dance!" The clones in the pods started dancing, and the man chuckled maniacally before leaving.

Mina stepped out of their hiding spot. "Well, you don't see this every day."

Izuku's face was white. "This is horrible! How could that man do this?"

"Who goes there?" Deep Chris asked. All the boys looked at them curiously.

Mina cleared her throat. "Hi! I'm Mina, this is Candy and Grenda and Izuku, and we're all fans of yours, totally!

"Who was that man?" Izuku demanded. "What has he been doing to you? Besides the obvious, I mean."

"Mr. Brassman's our producer, yo," One of the boys said. "He genetically engineered us to be the perfect boyband, but he keeps us in cages."

"That's so wrong." Candy shook her head. "We'll get you guys out of here."

"But we can't disobey Mr. Brassman," they protested. "He says he loves us!"

"If he loved you, he wouldn't keep you in cages, threaten to replace you, and use you to make money," Izuku pointed out. The boys looked at each other cautiously. "We'll help you guys escape." He opened the lock on their cage. "Let's get out of here."

* * *

Stan raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying that's why we had those strangely dressed pretty men staying in our house for a few days?"

"They had to lay low until Mr. Brassman got arrested," Mina explained. "And since they spent their whole life being treated like animals, we sort of had to teach them how to act properly in society so they wouldn't get trampled in this world."

"It was a pretty weird few days," Ochako agreed, spinning around continuously in her freefall. "But it felt really nice helping those guys! Izuku, you want to tell a story next?"

"Sure!" Izuku took the offered glowstick. "Okay, the name of this story will be _Helping Hands_."

* * *

The Mystery Crew, plus Stan, had decided to go to the Swap Meet event, where balloons were handed out and everyone was selling their used junk, like a massive party of a garage sale.

"Look at all this cool stuff!" Mina ran ahead to check out McGucket's inventions and Manly Dan's collectables. "If I wasn't trying to save more of that money we got, I'd buy all of it!" She flicked some of the bobbly heads and laughed. Shouto sighed and ran after her, a smile on his face.

A stand caught Stan's eye and he rubbed his hands together. "Look at these foe gold beauties! They're mob boss quality." He grinned at Izuku and Ochako. "Alright kids. Prepare to watch the delicate art of the deal." Then he slammed a hand on the table. "Hey, hag face. How much for the junk watches."

The woman, who looked a lot like a hag, pointed a long knobby finger at him. "These are not for sale. Not for you, Stan Pines!" The wind blew ominously behind her. "The wind whispers your name!"

Stan looked nonplussed. "Right, fine. Less talking more watch dealing." He slammed money on the counter and grabbed one of the watches. The woman's hand suddenly gripped him tight.

"Get your hands _off my watch!_"

Stan snatched his hand away. "Okay fine! Yeesh, freakshow." They walked away from the stand.

"Someone needs to work on their social skills," Ochako agreed, giving the woman a backwards glance.

"And their observation skills." Stan grinned, showing off the watch. "Boom!"

Izuku wasn't so sure. There was definitely something off about that woman. Still, he doubted Stan would care if he mentioned it, so he kept his mouth shut.

Izuku woke the next morning to the sound of screaming. He ripped off his blankets and ran downstairs, his friends following behind him. There, in the kitchen, was Stan, with neither of his hands.

"Holy crap, what happened to your hands?" Mina gasped.

"He got cursed," Izuku informed her.

Stan shrugged. "So I may have gotten cursed a little. It's fine! The watch looks great, and I don't need hands. I have self respect."

"I'm sure. But you have a business to run, we're staying with you while you run this business, and you need hands. This world's prosthetics won't cut it when you can actually get your hands back," Shouto pointed out. "Let's go visit that witch woman." Izuku was planning on sugar coating that, but at least Shouto was being honest.

They traveled through the spookiest part of the forest together, avoiding spiders and Steve the giant, then climbed a rocky mountain, which was theorized in hush words by the local hermit to be the home of the Hand Witch. Stan led them into the dark cave, flashlights tied to his forearms.

Something tapped Izuku's shoulder, and he shuddered nervously. "Guys, whoever is tapping my shoulder, this isn't funny. Not in this place."

"Seriously." Ochako frowned. "Someone's doing it to me too, and it isn't cool."

Something scurried along the wall, and Stan pointed a flashlight towards it. There, covering the entirety of the walls, was a massive number of hands. A scream tore from Izuku's throat, and he could hear everyone else screaming around him.

The hands launched themselves at everyone. Izuku blew them away with his dagger, and next to him Ochako floated them off her. Izuku noticed a hand launching itself at her from behind, and he sliced through it.

She turned back to see the severed hand fall on the floor. "Thanks!"

"No problem." Still, there were so many hands, even with all of them together it was starting to get overwhelming.

The witch cackled from above them. "Look at this _touching scene_. Up top!" One of the hands high fived her.

"Alright you horrible witch, you got me." Stan glared at her. "Stealing is wrong, yada-yada, etc. etc. Now can I have my hands back? I have a certain one fingered gesture I'd like to show you."

The hands formed a throne for the witch to sit on. "Alas, your hands cannot be gotten so easily. The spirits say, um, the curse can only be broken with ah, a _kiss on the liiipppps!_"

"What? Forget it!" Stan snapped. "I'm not kissing that mess. I don't need my hands that bad."

"You're just making stuff up now, aren't you?" Mina pointed out.

Izuku frowned. "People don't come here to visit a lot, do they?" The Hand Witch turned to him. "That must be really lonely. But how is taking their hands going to make people like you more? That's not how fondness works."

The witch stared at him, then let out a defeated sigh. "You're right, you're right. But whenever I bring people here without taking their hands hostage, they just run away!"

"Well, yeah." Stan gestured around them. "Look at this horror show. It's creepy even for a cave."

"Maybe in exchange for Stan's hands, we could help you re-decorate?" Izuku offered. "That way people might feel more invited."

"I like that idea!" The witch smiled. "You have yourselves a deal."

"Home makeover!" Mina cheered. With that, the six of them and hundreds of hands got to work. When it was finished, they led the Hand Witch back into her cave. "Okay, uncover your eyes."

She did so, and looked around the finished cave in awe. "Oh wow, I can't believe this is the same cave!"

"And we left a book of pick-up lines for you," Ochako added helpfully.

"I don't know what to say," the witch gushed.

Stan narrowed his eyes. "How about, "here's your hands back?" That would be good."

"Oh, yes." The witch snapped her fingers, and Stan's hands flew towards him, putting themselves in their rightful place.

"Shaky, scratchy! Oh how I've missed you." He wiggled his hands joyfully, and Izuku bit back a laugh." They waved goodbye to the witch and left the cave with some parting words from Stan: "Well, I learned nothing."

* * *

"That's amazing!" Soos clapped. "I can't believe I missed that."

Stan crossed his arms. "You're lucky you missed that mess. Why'd you have to go telling others about that day?"

Izuku shrugged. "We are telling stories. And Soos hadn't heard that one before." He passed the glowstick to Soos. "Want to go next?"

"Sure thing! And since Mr. Pines had a story told that I wasn't there for, I'll tell one that Mr. Pines wasn't there for. This story is called: _Soos' Really Great Pinball Story! Is that a good name? Does it have to be a pun or something?_"

* * *

Soos pressed the knobs on the pinball, while the Mystery crew cheered him on. "Go! Go! Go!"

"This is it dudes. After four long years of trying, I might finally get the high score on Stan's creepy old pinball machine. Then I'll go down in pinball history, with the likes of Sal, Gaff, and of course, Poo."

"Have you ever tried just tilting the machine?" Mina wondered.

Soos frowned. "I dunno dudes. Isn't breaking the rules kinda, you know, breaking the rules?"

"To hell with the rules!" Ochako cheered. "Rules are for those not aiming to go down in pinball history." Soos turned back to the machine, only to lose the game.

"_Failure! You stink!_" The creepy cowboy skull said.

Soos narrowed his eyes. "Alright, that's it. You ready kids?" They all got up and positioned themselves around the machine. Soos started a new game, and they helped him tilt it into the mouth of the cowboy.

"_Bullseye!_" They all cheered as Soos' name went up on the very top of the leaderboard. "_New high score!_"

"This is the best moment of my life," Soos confessed. "Totally beats my old best moment."

The cowboy skull narrowed his eyes. "_You cheated_."

"You say that like you know for sure," Shouto pointed out coolly.

"_Oh I know_." Lots of green lightning started flashing from the machine, and they had only a moment to step back before it enveloped them.

When everyone opened their eyes, they were much smaller than before, and wearing western costumes.

"Guys!" Izuku's eyes were wide. "We're inside the game!"

They looked around. Sure enough, the different parts of the pinball game towered above and around them.

"Dudes, if this is a dream, I never want to wake up!" Soos yelled.

"_That can be arranged._" They all looked to the cowboy, much bigger than before. "_Welcome to Tumbleweed Terror, partners. This isn't a good thing though! I do recall I warned y'all not to cheat! I tried to be gentleman-like, but I'm plum-sick of being tilted._" The lights in the machine all flashed menacingly. "_So now, I reckon I'm going to tilt you._"

Out of the cowboy's mouth came five different metal balls, giant compared to them now, and rolling right for them. They all took off.

"Does anyone have the flashlight?" Ochako cried out.

"It was in our room!" Izuku yelled back, jumping over one of the displays to avoid a ball. "Everyone behind here!" They dashed into the "Saloon Parlor".

Ochako turned to Izuku. "Deku, what's the plan?"

He frowned in thought. "Maybe if we shut down the machine manually, then we'll be good."

"I know where the shutdown button is," Soos told them. "But we'll need a distraction. Are any of you good at jumping up and down and making annoying noises?"

A mystical wind blew through Mina's hair. "My time has come," she announced.

So while the crew jumped out of hiding and did their best to act as annoying as possible, Soos rode down a cart through the gold mine and into the inner workings of the game, where a big green power button was on. He ran over to it, but then had a thought: what if this erased his high score? Looking down at the warning confirmed it.

"Soos!" Soos looked up to see a gust of wind sucking the kids in, and he knew he had no choice. He pressed the big red button. With another flash of green light, all of them were outside the game, and normal size.

Izuku let out a relieved laugh. "We're okay! Thanks Soos."

Shouto frowned. "Sorry about your high score."

"That's okay," Soos assured him. "Now I have an even better accomplishment: save you dudes."

* * *

Ochako blinked. "Wait, didn't that all happen this morning? We just went through that." Soos seemed to notice his shoes, and quickly put them on again.

"Does that make this whole mess our new story?" Mina's smile faded. "But then, how does it end?"

"Guys, do you see that?" Izuku was looking downwards, towards a steadily approaching bright light. Everyone screamed and covered their faces.

Then for a moment, they were in the air, before landing with a thump on the grass right outside the pit. No time seemed to have passed from when they entered.

"We came right back out the top, somehow." Ochako dusted herself off. "Not that I'm complaining, but how?"

Izuku looked down curiously. "Must be a paradox or wormhole of some kind. I guess this really is a bottomless pit."

"That sounds science-y enough to be true," Soos agreed.

"But - but that's impossible." Stan leaned on the sign, looking down. "No one will believe us!"

"Maybe this is one story we keep to ourselves," Shouto suggested.

"Agreed." They stood there for a moment, in peaceful silence, before the sign broke and Stan fell into the hole again.

"...He'll be fine."

* * *

**This chapter contained a lot of the little stories I wanted to write, but weren't long enough to merit their own chapters. Lots of adventures have been going on since the gang entered Gravity Falls, and so here's a little snippet of them.**

**Anyways, thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed, and please don't forget to review, let me know if you liked it!**


	13. A Time for Battle

**I'm back with another chapter! This is a season 2 episode, yeah, but it's one that could reasonable take place at any time over the summer, and it was a lot of fun to write. I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

It was a nice day in Gravity Falls. The Mystery Crew lounged around the gift shop as Ochako inserted the last quarter into the vending machine. The snack she chose started to slide out of its rack, but got caught on the way down.

"Aw man," she pouted. "And I wasted some perfectly good quarters too."

"That sucks," Izuku sympathized with her.

"Need some help?" Soos walked over to her. "Check out this trick. Bibbity boop-wahp." He tapped and nudged the vending machine in certain places, and the door opened up, allowing them access. He grabbed a handful of candy and tossed it into Ochako and Izuku's hands. "A genius taught me that once. This just in - weather report calls for a candy blizzard!"

"Sweet!" Mina jogged over and took some snacks out of the machine, Shouto following behind with an amused expression on his face.

"Thanks a lot!" Izuku beamed.

Soos waved him off, putting his own quarters into the now closed again machine. "No problem. I'd do anything for my fellow Mystery Shack workers."

"Soos!" Stan yelled. "I need to scratch myself in two places at once!"

Soos shook his head lightly. "And I mean anything. Coming Mr Pines!" He ran off, leaving his wallet behind him.

Izuku picked it up. "We should make sure he gets this back. In a minute I mean. I don't really want to see him helping Stan scratch himself."

"Don't phrase it that way, it sounds really bad." Mina's eyes sparkled. "Hey, don't you guys want to see what he's got in his wallet? Learn some Soos secrets? Could be fun!"

"I dunno if we should be snooping in someone's wallet," Izuku said hesitantly. But something had already caught Ochako's eye, and she pulled it out.

"Oh wow, a laser tag membership? That's so cool! We should all go play sometime."

Shouto pulled out a piece of salami labeled "for emergencies", then shrugged and put it back in the wallet. "Can't judge him for that. To each their own, I guess."

Izuku, obviously losing to his temptation and curiosity, looked at Soos' drivers license. "Jesus Alzamirano Ramirez. Oh, he's an organ donor, that's cool. And his birthday…" Izuku trailed off eyes, widening. "That's today!"

"Seriously? Why didn't he tell us, we could've done something for him!" Mina pouted, then brightened. "Well, we still could! Day's young, after all. Maybe we should throw something together for him."

Shouto's eyes knit together. "I don't know. I'm all for giving Soos a good birthday, but maybe he's got a reason he didn't tell anyone. Maybe he just doesn't like his birthday."

"We should still do something nice for him though," Ochako countered. "Maybe we can ask Stan and Wendy what they think he would like? They've known him longer, after all."

"Sounds like a plan," Izuku agreed.

* * *

Wendy winced, and Stan stopped counting his money to focus on them, and Izuku knew something was up.

"Glad you asked us first before doing anything," Wendy said. "You guys haven't heard yet, but Soos hates his birthday. He's hated it as long as I've known him, and probably since he was a kid. Some weird personal biz."

Izuku glanced at Shouto. "Looks like you were right. But why would he hate his birthday?"

"Personal business is probably right." Shouto sighed. "I've never been that fond of my own birthday, or at least it stopped feeling special when I was little. I'm not saying Soos has the same reasons I do," he added at their sympathetic looks, "just that maybe he's got a good reason for it."

"For your next birthday, we're gonna make it the best birthday of your life," Mina promised. "But right now, there's got to be something we can do for Soos."

Wendy shook her head. "We've tried everything."

"I even petitioned the government to have this day removed from calendars." Stan pulled out a sheet with his face on it and the words "_danger, flight risk_". "Now I'm not allowed on airplanes anymore."

"That's really sweet of you, but how does asking the government to remove a calendar date make you a flight risk?" Izuku wondered.

Stan looked away shiftily. "There were some… steps in between."

"Ah."

"What about the laser tag place?" Ochako offered. They all looked at her. "I mean, he's got a membership, and we were already talking about going there with him before we knew it was his birthday. That way he can at least do something he enjoys with people he likes."

Wendy smiled. "Smart idea. I like it."

They headed out of the shack to see Soos on the porch, looking glumly at a postcard in his hands. Izuku sat down next to him. "Hey, Soos! You, ah, left your wallet on the counter earlier."

Soos looked up in surprise, taking the offered wallet. "Oh, thanks dude! Hope you didn't eat my emergency salami, but I can't blame you if you did."

"No way, that's your salami. But we did see that you had a membership to the Big Gunz laser tag place, and we were wondering if you wanted to go with us there, as a big group."

The shack employee looked hesitant. "I dunno, I'd love to go with you guys, but I'm not feeling up for a lot today."

"All the more reason to go!" Mina chimed in from behind them. "Sounds like the perfect way to lift up your spirits to me."

"Well…" Soos still seemed undecided, but after taking in all of their encouraging faces, managed his own small smile. "Okay, let's do it!"

* * *

The laser tag place looked as many laser tag places did, with black lights and neon everywhere. As everyone got outfitted, Wendy felt the walls and frowned.

"Are these just mattresses spray painted purple?" She wondered.

"I think the place used to be a mattress store," Stan offered.

"_Laser battle will commence, in three, two, one!_" The doors opened, and they charged in.

But the minute they did, something felt different. Rather than fog machines and other people running around, Shouto and his friends found themselves in a small, bright white room, where two tall men stood. He turned around to see white bars of energy separating them from Soos, who had bent over to tie his shoe.

"Soos!" He called out, the others turning around at his voice. Soos looked up, surprise and then panic flashing across his face, before the last white wall slammed down, leaving them trapped.

Mina instinctively kicked one of the men. "Hey, let us out of here! We need to get to our friend!"

"_Thank you for buying digi-cod, the smart codpiece!_" Mina stepped back to rejoin the group, shoulder brushing against Shouto's.

Ochako kicked at one of the walls, a metallic clang echoing around them. "Nice try," one of the men said, "But those walls are solid time-tanium." Now that Shouto looked closer, both of their captors were absolutely ripped. And very familiar.

Izuku seemed to realize it as well. "It's those time enforcement guys!"

"That's right. And there's only one way out of here."

"Through me!" They turned to see a head and two hands, glaring at them harshly. Then the head frowned and messed with something on his watch, his jumpsuit coming into view. "W-wait, hang on." The jumpsuit turned to its normal color. "Through me! And that's what it would've been like if I'd just gotten it right the first time, but it's still as effective."

"You're that guy!" Mina exclaimed. "The time travel guy. Blengi, right? Blarji?"

"Blendo?" Ochako winced. "Oh, shoot sorry, I just remember it was a really hard name to pronounce. But wait, there was a lot of "j"s in there, right? And "L"s?"

"Blendin, I think," Izuku tried.

"Yes! That last one! Blendin Blendjamin Blandin!" Blendin snarled. "You better not have forgotten my name after you ruined my life!"

"We didn't forget!" Ochako protested! "It was just a very hard name to get right! Also, ruined your life?"

"No excuses!" The man shrieked. He fiddled with his watch, and a hologram popped up. "Initiate flashback. It was after you stole my time device to win your stupid pig. I was captured and stripped of my job in the time anomaly removal crew, my whole life's purpose!" The flashback showed his jumpsuit turning into prison garb. And then I was given ten squared life sentences in time prison. I've spent every day since then planning my vengeance." The flashback disappeared.

Shouto winced, feeling the guilt rush over him. They hadn't meant to, but they'd clearly ruined the man's life. Looking at his friend's stricken faces, he could tell they felt the same.

"We're so sorry!" Izuku stepped forward. "Officers, he was telling the truth then. It was us who were messing with time, not Blendin! We didn't know what we were dealing with, that's no excuse. We should've come clean then and not let him take the fall for us." Blendin stepped back, as if shocked. Then he shook his head.

"Y-You're just saying that because I'm about to get my revenge on you!" The man insisted. "I won't be swayed by your lies."

"They're not lies!" Izuku protested.

"He's right," Shouto added. "What we did was wrong." He turned to the officers. "How can we fix this?"

They both looked more than a little shocked. "We appreciate your honesty, children, but Blendin's fate has already been decided. As you said, you didn't know what you were messing with, and he should not have allowed anyone from the past to get their hands on his time machine, as almost anyone would've used it. He is still at fault here."

That wasn't fair. But what could they do about it?

Mina winced. "Then can we at least go back to our own time? It's our friend's birthday, and we promised ourselves that we'd make it a good one."

"Unfortunately, no," the other guard said. "Not anymore."

"Don't think your fake pity will stop me from erasing your pitiful existences," Blendin crowed at them. "And some dumb birthday means even less. None of that matters here, in Globnar!"

One of the white walls became bars again, but this time into a very different place. Shouto looked out into what seemed to be a futuristic gladiatorial arena. People were on fire, falling through portals, fighting monsters and battling each other on giant clocks. As people were stricken with blades, they aged forwards and backwards.

Ochako leaned up against the bars. "What is all this?"

"This is gladiatorial time combat!" Blendin announced. "The winner gets a precious time wish," they watched as one of the combatants was declared the winner, "and then decides the loser's fate!" The winner turned his thumb down, and the loser was vaporized. Shouto looked on, horrified. "The four of you are officially challenged. Dundgren! Get me my war paint."

The Mystery Crew shared looks. "We need to get out of here now," Shouto said.

"This would be a really bad place to die," Izuku agreed.

"On it." As Dundgren helped Blendin put on his war paint, the other guard, Lolph, leaned against the bars, watching them. With his eyes on the others in the room, Ochako floated his tape off his belt and over to them. They huddled around her as she fiddled with it.

Just as Blendin noticed what they were doing and cried out, they were gone.

They popped into existence again, flopping down on mattresses. Shouto looked around. Rather than the laser tag place they were aiming for, they had ended up in a mattress store.

Mina groaned. "Stan said this place used to be a mattress store. We went too far into the past."

A familiar sound echoed behind them, and the four ducked under the mattress. "Looks like they overshot their destination by ten years," one of them said.

"You'd better find those kids!" Blendin wiped the war paint off of his face.

"You'll get your justice Blendin," Lolph said coolly, looking rather ticked that he'd had his own time machine stolen.

"I'd better! I'm going to keep stammering until you find those kids! I-I-I-I-"

"I hate that guy," Lolph muttered to his coworker.

"Let's move," Dundgren agreed. They two of them hopped from mattress to mattress until they were out of the store.

"I don't piss off that many people when I stammer and mumble, do I?" Izuku looked worried.

"Not in the slightest!" Ochako assured him, as they crept out from under the mattress. "It's really charming when you mumble."

"We like you for who you are, and that includes your tangents," Shouto added. Mina slung her arm around his shoulders. Izuku smiled at them bashfully. "Let's get moving. Hopefully we can be back before we miss anything."

"Um, not yet, actually." Ochako winced and held up their stolen time machine, which was sparking, and obviously a little damaged. "I don't trust this thing until we fix it."

"We'll just get the tools at the Mystery Shack. It should definitely still be open right now."

It was an extremely strange moment, walking through the town. The tattooed man was just getting tattoos, Sheriff Blubs had long hair, and there was a sign with baby Gideon on it, vandalized by someone drawing demon horns on him. Izuku winced as they walked past that one.

And there was Stan at the Mystery Shack, talking to his tourists about his new wax exhibit. The four of them smiled at each other before running behind the shack and sneaking in through a window.

Izuku grabbed some of the tools from behind the counter and started working on fixing the time machine, while Ochako walked over to help a kid with the vending machine, obviously about to teach him the same thing Soos taught her. Shouto let his eyes roam around the slightly altered store, and something in his gut turned over. There was a strange feeling that soaked through him, like he needed to see something.

Shouto hopped behind the counter and leaned down, following that feeling, and there under the counter was a framed photo, with two figures inside.

"Find something interest- oh. Huh." Mina leaned over his shoulder.

There in the photo were two kids, both of them looking about five years old and nearly identical to each other, the boy in blue and the girl in pink, wearing their hair at different lengths. They were smiling happily for the camera.

At the bottom of the frame was a scribbled note: "_Stanford. You haven't come to see them since they were born, so I thought you might want a photo! Your brother, Sherman._"

"I mean, it makes sense that Stan's got family," Mina muttered softly. "I guess I just didn't expect this. I dunno why. They must be his grandkids."

"Looks like this photo was just sent. They're probably our age about now." Shouto frowned. "I wonder why he's never mentioned them?" They could ask when they got back, but he wasn't sure how Stan would respond to the inquiry.

"Guys!" Ochako ran over. "That kid! He was Soos! It's his birthday today, and he sounded really excited about it!"

Izuku perked up, walking over with the machine in hand. "You think this is the birthday that ruined his other birthdays for him? Should we go see what happened?"

"Isn't that a little private?" Shouto was pretty sure he wouldn't be happy if someone time traveled to his past and watched as he broke down on the ground after being pushed way beyond his limits on his sixth birthday.

"But if we know what happened, then maybe we can help him fix it in the future, whatever it is." Shouto looked at the others and saw he was outnumbered, so he sighed and followed them along.

It seemed to be a great setup for a birthday, and nothing like his own. Soos' whole family and some of his friends were there and happy to see him, his grandmother got him a giant cake, and Soos himself was smiling brightly.

"Sorry, could you move seats?" He asked one of his friends. "It's for my dad. I haven't seen him in like, eight years, but he's coming today!"

Shouto's heart sunk. "Guys, we should leave."

"What?" But Soos was running to get the door, and they followed him. Shouto didn't need to hear the words spoken to see the postcard, and young Soos' face fall. The kid went back inside, dejected.

Izuku sat back in their hiding spot. "That's… I know that feeling. I've been through it myself. But it happened on his birthday, and so it stuck out to him even more."

"How can we fix _this_?" Mina wondered softly.

"We can't," Shouto told her. "We can only be there for him in the present." Izuku nodded firmly.

"This way!" They sunk lower in their hiding spot as Blendin and his guards came around the corner. "They've got to be around here somewhere. I think I heard them!"

Lolph shot his gun at a tree, causing the small Robbie hiding behind it to cry and run away. "Trace their chrono-signatures."

"Man, the sooner I defeat those kids in Globnar, the sooner I get my time-wish," Blendin gushed.

"You know what I'd do if I had a time wish?" Dundgren had a wistful expression on his face. "Retire, spend more time with the kids."

"Nahahaha-with the kids!" Blendin brushed him off. "Don't you know a time wish can do literally anything? Any impossible problem solved, just like that?"

_Any impossible problem?_

"We could wish for a way home," Izuku breathed. For the first time since Cipher, Shouto allowed himself to hope.

Ochako grinned. "Not just that - who says we can't wish for two things in one? We could solve Soos' dad problem and get home while we're at it. A perfect win."

"Think we can win this?" Mina looked as though she could barely hold back her excitement.

Shouto smiled. "I say we give it a shot."

They stepped out of their hiding spot. "Blendin!" Izuku called out. "We're ready to challenge you. No tricks this time." He handed Lolph back his time machine.

Blendin jumped in joy. "Yes! Let the battle begin! Prepare for GLOBNAAAAAAAAAAAA-" He was cut off.

"Turns out we can mute him," Lolph noted.

"Man I wish we'd known that earlier."

* * *

They reappeared in the center of the arena, more people than Mina could imagine around them and cheering loudly. A circle in front of them opened up, and out came the time baby they had seen fighting in that great war during their first time travel adventure.

"Silence," The baby boomed, and when a spectator cheered more, the baby fried him with laser vision. Mina tried to shake away the shivers the baby gave her.

"Welcome Globnar tributes," Time Baby said. "I have a very important nap to get to, so let's make this quick. You each have a chance to settle your time feud through gladiatorial combat." He waved his hands, and numerous weapons filled the arena.

"You will have until Time Baby is finished drinking the cosmic sand in this hourglass," a robot informed them. The robot pushed the bottle against Time Baby's face. "Come on."

"No!" The giant baby protested.

"It's good for you."

"Nya!"

"Get ready kids," Blendin challenged. "When this is over, you'll wish you were never born. Or rather, you'll wish you were born, because I'm gonna wish you were never born!"

"There's four of us and one of you," Shouto pointed out. "You really think you can win?"

Blendin's response was a confident smirk. "Of course I will. I've got training!" He grabbed a spear and twirled it around expertly. "What do you think I was doing in prison all that time?"

The four exchanged glances. This might be trickier than they thought. Still, with their own training, powers, and skills, Mina was confident that they would come out on top.

"Let the Globnar begin!" With that, the audience cheered, and the arena lit up, a scoreboard flashing over their heads.

What followed was an almost unending series of challenges, sparring, motorcycle racing, chess, monster fighting, hotdog eating contests, swimming away from sharks, holographic mountain climbing, and more. Still, from their training, intellect, and powers, the Mystery Crew found themselves gaining a sizable lead, and by the time they finished putting what must've been the final monster away, they had far more points than Blendin did.

"There is only one final challenge for Globnar," Time Baby told them. "An ancient game, thousands of years old, chosen for its exemplification of pure strategy. The ancient art… of LASER TAG!"

A holographic form of a laser tag arena sprung up around them, and Mina caught Ochako's eye, both of them trying not to burst into laughter. Izuku sweatdropped, and Shouto looked highly unimpressed. "The one who touches the victory orb first will win!"

"Yes! Time for my comeback!" Blendin readied his new blaster. "You might be laughing now, but just wait until they turn on the fog machine! You be so sorry-"

Izuku started firing at hitting him, and Mina ran for the orb, grabbing it.

Time Baby finished his cosmic sand. "It is finished!" The crowd went wild as the teen's point score went up to 999. Blendin screeched in fury and Mina high-fived her friends, all of their faces flushed with exhaustion and victory.

"You have made victory in Globnar." The giant baby floated down to them. "Before I give you your time wish, what is the decided fate for the loser?"

"Death!" Mina cheered.

"Mina!" Shouto snapped.

She chuckled, embarrassed. "Sorry, got carried away."

Izuku frowned contemplatively. "So, he did sort of try and wish us out of existence, but we also did ruin his life and accidentally frame him for a crime he didn't commit."

"He's not really a villain," Ochako agreed. "Maybe we can turn things around with him."

"He was obsessed with erasing us out of existence. That's kind of a big deal," Shouto pointed out. "I'm not saying your wrong, just that maybe we should privately let someone keep an eye on him, in case he flies off the handle again."

With that decided, they turned back to Time Baby. "We've decided," Izuku announced, "that as long as you keep a close eye on him, Blendin should get his job at the time anomaly correction unit back, and be set free."

"And give him some nice hair," Ochako added kindly.

"So be it." And so Blendin's chains fell, and hair grew on his head.

"Really? You're doing this for me?" Blendin beamed. "I feel like hugging somebody!" He turned to Lolph.

"I can kill you in thirty different ways," Lolph informed him.

Blendin jumped back. "Yes sir."

"Now, children," The yellow orb floated down to them. "What is it that you want for your time wish?"

Shouto looked up at him. "Is there any way we can use this wish to travel to another universe? A different one from this?"

"Unfortunately not," Time Baby answered. "Time wishes are contained by the restraints of this world. Travelling to another isn't possible."

They all deflated. Mina winced. She could admit, that had really gotten her hopes up. Automatically, she looked over to Shouto, to see how he was doing. He caught her eye and nodded, as if to confirm he was okay, and she smiled at him.

Izuku sighed, then turned back to Time Baby. "This wish isn't for us then."

Time Baby's eyes widened. "Not you? But then who? Who is worthy to receive such power?"

* * *

They appeared with Blendin in the present, the laser tag scene frozen around them. Soos, the only one moving, turned to look at them, joy and relief spreading across his face.

"Izuku, Ochako, Mina, Shouto!" He ran forward and gave them all a big hug, which Izuku gladly returned. "I've been so worried! You guys just disappeared!"

"Sorry we're late," Izuku said, as the older man let go. "We got caught up in this time travel stuff where we had to fight to the death."

"There was a time cyclops, and a timed eating contest, and a time race," Mina added. "And lots more. But that's not the important thing."

"The important thing is that we know how to fix your birthday." Shouto motioned to Blendin, who brought out the time wish.

Soos looked stunned. "You guys did all of that for me?"

"Behold, your time wish," Blendin announced. "The power to alter time paradox free in any way you choose."

"We thought that maybe you'd want to use it to meet your dad," Izuku said softly. "But it's up to you."

"You mean I can finally see my dad by touching this thing? And you guys battled through time and space to get me this?" Soos looked the time wish over with wonder, before placing his hand on the orb and closing his eyes. With a flash, Izuku could feel all the cuts and bruises he'd gained in Globnar fade away.

"Bam." Soos smiled. "Fixed you up. Enjoy dudes."

Ochako frowned. "But Soos-" Izuku stopped her. To be honest, he had considered that Soos would end up wishing for something else, even if he hadn't realized it would be for them.

"Birthdays are supposed to be spent with the people who cared about you. And that dude didn't care enough about me to visit me once! Let alone fight monsters through time and space like you dudes." Soos laughed. "I've been being ridiculous this whole time. Whoever my dad was, he can take a hike! My family is my Abuelita, Mr. Pines, and you dudes. Thanks for giving me the best birthday ever."

"Of course!" Izuku wiped away his ears at that speech.

"Are you kidding me?" Blendin looked appalled. "Do you have any idea what you just wasted? Do you know how many have died to get a time wish? The wars that were started-"

"Oh, that isn't all," Soos assured him, pulling out a slice of pizza. "I also wished for this infinite pizza." He took a bite, and it reappeared. "And it can do that for like, infinity." Everyone expressed their approval at that part of the wish.

"I have to go back now," Blendin informed them. "A-After everything you kids did for me, with all that stuff you said about the other world on the way here, I promise if I find anything that can help you get home, I'll let you know."

"Thanks!" Izuku told him gratefully. The time traveler disappeared in a flash.

"Hey, are you guys coming?" Wendy called out. The five exchanged grins and grabbed their laser rifles, jumping into battle.

* * *

"You know, maybe we should've wished for our quirks back," Ochako mused, as they were walking home.

"It might not have worked. Doesn't work over universes, remember?" Izuku shrugged. "Then we would've wasted the time wish."

"Good point." Shouto listened to them talk, before Mina tapped his shoulder.

"Think we should ask Stan about that photo?"

Shouto looked over at the conman, who was laughing at something Soos said. "Not right now. Let's just enjoy Soos' birthday. There'll be plenty of time later. We're not going anywhere soon, after all."

* * *

**Well, that's it for now! I hope you enjoyed, and please don't forget to leave a review! If you have any questions about the story, I'd be happy to answer them.**


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